A Certain Level 0 Huntsman
by Alopex Teumesios
Summary: Kamijou Touma is a Huntsman. Or at least that's what he liked to think. In truth he never went to Huntsman school, he never forged his own signature weapon and he has never killed a Grimm. But he did have training and cheap homemade weapons and even his special ability. In the coming days he would need all of these things for the misfortune that awaits him.
1. Prologue

**_Prologue_**

* * *

 **July 19th**

 _'And to think, all I wanted was some lasagne,'_ thought Touma Kamijou as he ran down the sidewalk. "Fukoda!"

"Will you quit running!? What are you some kind machine!?" Yelled one of the reasons Touma was running.

"If I told you I was and that there'd be hell to pay for damaging me, would you believe me?" Touma called back.

"Like hell!" Replied reason No. 3.

"Your owners can send us the bill!" Reason No. 9 said.

" _Well it was worth a shot_ ," Touma muttered under his breath. A few more minutes of running, ducking and weaving had Touma wondering just why the hell he didn't go to town on these assholes.

That's when he remembered that his mother didn't like it when he got into fights and that he should only fight in self-defence or defence of others. Thinking about just who he was supposed to be protecting had him stay his hand.

But not his feet as even more dashing, sprinting and leaping pulled him further and further away from his pursuers. He had let them keep up so as to fool them into thinking that they didn't need to call in backup in the form of bikes and cars and such but now that they were tiring enough that he could jog and still outrun them he decided it was time to cut and run.

He made it all the way to the bridge before he finally slowed down to stop and take a little breather. He leaned onto the railing and looked out to sea. _'Whew, I thought I was never going to lose them,'_ he thought _. 'What a way to kick off my vacation. Fukoda. Still though, I suppose it could have been worse.'_

He supposed right. After all, in a city of 2.3 million people, in which 80% of the population possessed amazing abilities it was all too likely to meet someone who could blow your head off with single gesture. These were the Espers.

That's 1,840,000 people that you messed with at your own peril. Fortunately only 40% of those people could actually use their abilities to any practical degree which left 1,104,000 people that one might call a D-list superhero. These were the level zeroes.

On the other side of the spectrum you had the level one's to four. These people could use their abilities to some significant degree, thus pushing them out of the level zero caste.

And on the far, far side of that spectrum there were the level five's. The best of the best, the crème de la crème, the apple of Academy City's metaphorical eye. They were the strongest, smartest and most powerful Espers out there. If a regular Esper could kill you with a gesture these ones could kill you with a thought.

And to Touma's fortune one was coming towards him right now. To his misfortune that is. "What's with you?" A young, feminine voice called out. "Luring those delinquents away from me, what, do you think that makes you a Good Samaritan or something?"

"Or something, I suppose," Touma replied, still looking out to sea.

"You should look at someone when talking to them."

Touma just sighed and turned around, back still resting against the metal railing. "And what would you know about manners?" he asked. "The only reason I stepped in was to get those guys away from you."

"Wha-? Now who doesn't have manners? What are you trying to say?" The now flustered Mikoto Misaka replied indignantly.

"Oh nothing. Just that it's a cruel man that just stands aside while some poor fools piss off the Railgun," Touma said with a shrug.

"So you do know who I am. I realize I never told you my name during our last few encounters."

"It's hard not to know one of the seven most powerful people in the city," Touma said while turning back around to once again look out over the sea.

"So you know who I am but clearly you don't know what I can do, otherwise you wouldn't just turn your back on me," Mikoto said, while fishing around her pocket.

"Oh I am more than famil-"

 _*BOOM*_

 _"GAH! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"_ Touma cried out angrily while spinning around. "This! This is exactly what I mean when I say you have no manners! You could have blown my damn eardrum out!"

"Oh spare me," Mikoto huffed petulantly. "Ever since I became level five you're the only person who's tied with me in a fight. If you can't handle a railgun that doesn't even hit you I'm embarrassed to have to say that."

"Well whatever," Touma said, rolling his eyes. He once again turns from the ocean and makes to leave but before he could-

 _*Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzt*_

Touma quickly turned around and brought up his hand to intercept the lightning bolt that was coming his way and after a few, brief moments the light finally faded.

 _"Ugh! Just who are you!? How can you negate my attacks so easily?"_ Mikoto cried, frustrated at the lack of any visible damage.

"I'd say that I'm the luckiest person in the world," Touma said. "But I don't really like lying so I won't. I'm just the Level 0 that's _unlucky_ enough to have to deal with you.

"Why you little-" Mikoto growled. Whatever else she was going to say, however was drowned out by the veritable storm she summoned to strike down our misfortunate hero.

However Touma managed to evade the lightning she called down and heroically made his escape. Mikoto, whose attention was focused on summoning the lightning, couldn't muster the concentration needed to split her focus between the controlling the storm and giving chase. So she just had the storm chase Touma for her.

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** _So this is a thing. This is my first fanfiction and hopefully it takes off because I've actually been thinking about this for a while and in anticipation for RWBY Vol. 4 what better way to celebrate?_

 _For those of you upset about the lack of change or the lack of RWBY elements, be patient. It will all come together soon.  
And one last thing; I'm not that great at Japanese suffixes and honorifics so don't expect to see too many of those._


	2. The Human Library

_**The Human Library**_

* * *

 **July 20th**

* * *

Touma whistled happily as he went about his business. What did he have to be so happy about you ask? Well nothing. Absolutely nothing. In fact the argument could be made that he had much to be _unhappy_ about.

The storm that Biribiri summoned had completely shorted out the city's power grid and caused a city wide blackout. It probably didn't help that he had led the damn thing halfway to his own dorm before Mikoto finally gave up trying to turn him into a human light socket. It wasn't his fault she was so damn persistent.

But being chased around by a literal storm cloud wasn't the worst thing to happen to him. He had been chased around before, hell he had been chased halfway around the city just a few minutes prior to that so he was used to it.

Though, admittedly, being chased by a storm cloud was a first for him. However the same basic rules of _'don't get caught'_ still applied so it wasn't all that novel of an experience.

No, the worst part about last night was most certainly the blackout. For you see, because of the blackout his fridge had stopped working throughout the night which meant all of his food was now more liable to kill him than satisfy him.

Then, as if that wasn't bad enough he got a call from his teacher telling him that he had to attend remedial classes to make up for his failing grades. If his mother ever caught wind of that she'd have his head.

Touma suppressed a shudder just thinking about it.

And to top it all off he appeared to have left his cell phone in the restaurant last night, before being chased out by those delinquents. He wouldn't have time to get it before his remedial classes so it would have to wait until after.

All of these thing put together would probably make any normal person a little upset and Touma was no exception. However he liked to be optimistic about things so he put his best game face on, thought positively and whistled a happy tune before going about his business.

What a legend.

"Alright," Touma said, clapping his hands together excited for the new day. "First order of business: air out the futon." Doing just that Touma reached out and bundled up his futon cradling it in his arms as he slid open the door to his balcony with his foot.

However as he took his first step outside he noticed something.

"Huh? I already have a futon hanging out here? Wait, I don't have a second futon," Touma said out loud, more than a little confused. Deciding to take a closer look he realised it was, in fact, not a futon. It looked more like a small, unmoving body.

"Agh! A corpse! There's a corpse on my balcony!" Touma cried out, dropping his futon in surprise.

"Mmm," the corpse murmured. "I-"

"Huh? Did the corpse just say something?" Touma wondered aloud.

"I'm hungry," it said quietly.

"Agh! Zombie!" Touma shrieked masculinely as he took a step back inside to grab a long, preferably pointy, stick to push, what was obviously a zombie off of his balcony. He knew some nut-job would get around to it this _was_ Academy City after all. However before he could dash inside the voice called out to him again, a little clearer than before.

"How rude. I'm not a zombie," the obviously female person said.

"You're not?" Touma said curiously. "So you don't want to eat my brains?"

"Hmmph. Clearly if anyone were to eat your brains all they'd get out of it was a stomach ache. Or some questions on how a person was able to function for as long as you have without one.

"Ouch, that stings. I think I'd prefer it if you actually did eat my brains because that one just hurt," Touma said, bringing his hand to his chest. "Ah well, clearly if I'm so stupid I would have nothing of value to offer you, least of all food."

"No, wait!" cried the girl. "Please don't go, you're smart, really smart! Pleasefeedme!"

"Heh heh, sucker," Touma said, quietly congratulating himself.

"Hmmph," the girl the girl…growled? While making and adorably pouty face.

"Oh don't look at me like that, I'll get you something to eat," Touma said, reaching out to help her from the balcony, a sly smile on the corner of his lips.

"Yay!" the girl cheered, seemingly not noticing his clearly _'I'm up to no good'_ face.

* * *

"Just wait here, I'll make you something to eat," Touma said, instructing her to remain at the table.

"Okay," the girl replied cheerfully.

Touma walked over to his fridge fully intending to make the girl something to eat. Just nothing good.

 _'Hehe, this'll teach her not to insult my intelligence.'_ Touma thought. He reached into his fridge, which was surprisingly empty, and just dumped everything into a frying pan. While he was doing this he thought about the girl sitting at his table.

She was clearly a foreigner so that begged the question; who was she? Why was she here? And more importantly, why was she hanging from his seventh story balcony?

Deciding now was as good of a time as any, he called over to her. "So what's your name kid?"

"My name is Index and I am not a kid," the now identified Index called back

"Oh, codenames huh? That's cool, do I get one?"

"Codename? What does that mean? Index is my real name. Or do you mean my magic name? In that case it's Dedicatus545. It means 'the dedicated lamb protects the knowledge of the strong'"

"Does it? Touma asked. "It sounds Latin."

"It is. Do you know Latin?"

"No, but I know enough about it to know when something sounds like it, I guess," Touma said casually. "And what do you mean by 'magic name'?"

"It means that it is the name I carved onto my soul, the reason I wanted to learn magic," Index clarified.

"Carved onto your soul? Learn magic?" Touma said, more confused than ever.

"Yes magic. Was my Japanese weird?"

"No, no I heard you loud and clear," said Touma, finishing up with the _'cooking'_.

A moment later he was serving her the food as well as passing along a bowl and a pair of chopsticks. "Here you go," Touma said, inordinately proud of himself, deciding to put their conversation on hold for now.

"Thank you for the food!" She cried happily, wasting no time in digging into the food with an almost religious fervour. Which was funny considering she was actually dressed like a nun albeit in white with gold trim as opposed to black with white trim. One more thing to ask about Touma supposed.

It was then that Touma realized something was going critically wrong with his plan. She was enjoying the food. That wasn't supposed to happen.

"Are, uh. Are you enjoying the food?" he asked cautiously.

"Absolutely!" She said, grinning with eyes as bright and innocent as a kitten that had found a new toy to play with. "And it's so great of you to add the sour flavor to help me get my strength back."

"Oh really?" Touma said with the smile he sent back feeling a little forced.

"Yes, definitely. It's so kind of you to do this without even asking for anything."

"Heh heh, yeah, that's me… Mr. Nice Guy, heh heh," Touma said, the bells of his conscience finally beginning to ring. Desperately, he looked for a viable reason to get her to stop eating. "You know, that's not really how you eat with chopsticks."

"Huh?" she replied curiously. She had been holding both chopsticks in a fist like one would a spoon and had simply been scooping the food into her mouth while tilting the bowl to her lips.

"Here let me show you," Touma said while reaching for the bowl and chopsticks. Index gingerly handed them over and she watched as Touma put the chopstick between his thumb and forefinger and used it to pick up the food in front of him and eat it.

And eat it. And eat it. And now he was doing what she was and just scooping the food into his mouth while tilting the bowl to his lips!

"Hey! What are you doing!?" cried Index, desperately grabbing the bowl. However it was too late and when it came away from Touma's mouth it was completely empty. The girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and an empty bowl in her hand and asked only one question.

 _"Why?"_

"Aha ha," Touma chuckled nervously. "I guess I was pretty hungry too?" The answer sounding more like a sheepish question.

"But now that breakfast is over we can go back to our previous conversation," Touma said, hurriedly changing the topic and keeping his mind off the pain that was his stomach convulsing violently in protest of the food he had just fed it.

"Hmmph. Fine," Index said childishly while crossing her arms and looking away petulantly.

"So you were saying stuff earlier about magic. What did you mean by that?"

"Magic, don't you know what magic is?" She asked disbelievingly.

"Oh I know, I just don't think you can use it to carve a name onto your soul."

"Well of course you can, that's how you learn magic," Index said as if it was the most basic thing in the world. And to be fair, to her, it probably was.

"Uhh, I hate to break it to you Index but you don't need to come up with a silly name to do magic, that part's optional. Or at least it was when I learned it."

"You know magic?" Index asked incredulously.

"Yep," Touma said proudly while fishing in his wallet for a coin. "Watch me make this coin disappear."

"Ugh, not that kind of magic. I mean _real_ magic," Index said exasperatedly.

"What do you mean _real_ magic? There's no such thing as _real_ magic."

"Yes there is!" Index shouted back indignantly.

"Prove it. Cast a spell for me."

"I…I can't. I don't have any mana," Index admitted sheepishly.

"Well isn't that convenient," Touma said pompously.

"Hnnn… Ah I know!" Index exclaimed before quickly dashing into the kitchen and grabbing a kitchen knife and dashing back.

"You shouldn't run with knives," Touma said instinctively, years of looking after his younger cousins having made their mark on him.

"Shut up," she replied hurriedly. "Now stab me with this," she said holding the knife out towards him.

"What!? No!" Touma cried. Holding up his hands as if to ward off the knife. "Are you crazy? No, wait scratch that. You think magic is real. Either way, I'm not going to stab you!"

"Why not? Magic _is_ real and you _won't_ stab me because you _can't_. This habit is called the Walking Church and its defense magic is Pope-class. It's an accurate replica of the Holy Shroud of Turin. It's magic from the stitching to the embroidery. And I'm _not_ crazy," Index replied rather childishly.

"Are you listening to yourself? You're asking me to stab you because you think your ' _magic'_ will protect you. I am not going to stab you because I don't want to end up on the news as the perpetrator of domestic violence and I don't think the excuse _'her clothes were magical'_ will hold up in court!"

"Hnnn. Fine! I'll prove it to you!" and with that Index grabbed the knife with both hands and stabbed herself right in the stomach. Or at least that's what it looked like.

"No!" Touma cried out, desperately reaching out to grab her hand.

"It's fine," Index said calmly, the concern Touma showed at her stabbing herself briefly mellowing her out after their previous argument. "See?" she said showing him the bent knife.

Touma just stared, speechless. "Huh. It really didn't stab you." Thoughts quickly whirled about in Touma's head as he thought about reason why that could be.

She could have been wearing armor underneath of course. But it was far too flowy for her to have any metal plates or anything under there. The fabric itself could be some sort of fabricated armor but again it was far too flowy and thin to be some sort of Kevlar or carbon fiber, not even Academy City had something that could just turn aside blades like that.

And there was the fact that simple, fabricated armors were vulnerable to blades to begin with, being intended more for the blunt force of bullets.

So how? How had she completely ruined his knife like that? He decided he would try and find out. He gently took the knife from Index and straightened it out.

"Hand me your arm," he said.

"Okay," she replied, happy that he was now more trusting of her. "You believe me now don't you?"

"Just a sec." Touma laid her arm down on the table and spread the sleeve out. "Don't move," he said to her.

"It wouldn't matter, "she replied confidently. She kept her arm still nonetheless. Touma raised the knife slightly and stabbed it down onto her sleeve. Once again it didn't pierce it. He tried again and it didn't work.

"Believe me now?" Index asked smugly.

"Just one more try," Touma said, this time raising the knife high.

"Fine," Index sighed. "But this is the last time. I have to get going after this." Touma simply nodded and raised the knife higher. This time he poured as much strength as he could into the strike putting his very being into it.

And the glass table underneath shattered. "Agh!" Index shrieked leaping backwards. "What did you do that for?" she said putting her hands on her hips.

Touma just stared silently and pointed at her arm.

Because dangling from it was the knife that had pierced through her Walking Church.

* * *

 **A/N:** _One chapter down, a lot more to go. A guest reviewer last chapter commented that Academy City's 2.3 million not 2.8 million. I searched it up and I realized you were right thanks for that. :)._

 _I started reading the light novels again and in the first one they said that the **student** population was 2.3 million and that the students made up 80% of Academy City which _ would _have made the total population 2.8 million but in the later novels it's said that the population is 2.3 million and 80% of **that** is made up of students. That is also used more consistently so I'll be changing that soon. Once again, thanks._

 ** _Explanations:  
The Knife:_** _Why did the knife work when Touma's power is confined to his right hand? Well stay tuned to fine out. ;P (Maybe not the best explanation but I don't want to give any spoilers. However, if you're really curious RWBY explains it in one of the first few episodes if you can make the link. ;P)_


	3. The Imagine Breaker

_**The Imagine Breaker**_

* * *

 **July 20th**

* * *

Seeing that Touma was not planning on answering her Index finally took the time to notice that he was pointing at something.

"Huh? What are you pointing at?" She asked while looking in the direction he was pointing. "Ehh!? How did that happen? How'd you do that?"

"I dunno," said Touma with a non-committal shrug. "But I do know I have to clean up this mess," he continued, giving the shards of glass on his floor a resigned look.

"Well that's your own fault," said Index with not a trace of sympathy. Ignoring the gruelling task that awaited Touma she went to pull the knife out of her sleeve but before she could it fell out accompanied by the sound of cloth tearing.

However it was not the knife falling from her sleeve that made the tearing sound so much as it was her sleeve falling from the rest of her habit. Then the rest of her habit falling from _her_.

It took a moment for this to register in Index's mind and as soon as it did, well. Let's just say that if Touma's table hadn't already been shattered it would have been after Index's scream.

* * *

"Sheesh, are you sure you're not a zombie?" Touma asked while massaging the _numerous_ bite marks he had received courtesy of Index.

No reply came from the lump underneath his covers.

"Erm… If you want I have some clothes you could wear. They'd be boys' clothes and they'd be a bit big for you but…"

Still no reply.

"Come on, Index. I said I was sorry, right?" Touma quickly ducked an alarm clock that was thrown his way.

"I don't understand how you can still talk to me so casually," Index muttered.

"Well, honestly I'm just trying to repress the last few minutes, they've been rather traumatic," Touma replied.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Index yelled.

"It means I just got chewed up like bubble-gum by a little girl who's supposed to be a nun, what do you think it means?" Touma explained nervously.

"O-Oh… I thought you meant… N-never mind!" Index said, thoroughly confusing the boy.

"So about those clothes…" Touma started.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Index said. "I've got this," she continued proudly displaying her habit being held together by more safety pins than Touma even thought he owned.

Touma looked at it and rendered judgement upon it. "Are actually planning on wearing that?"

Index smile faded a bit.

"I mean- it's just that-" Touma tried to say.

Index's expression made it look like she was about to cry.

"Well…" Touma trailed off, gesturing to the seams.

"Waaaahhhh!" And there came the waterworks.

"Oh jeez. Index, I _have_ -"

"No! I'm going to wear these! I am nun after all," Index stated resolutely.

"If you say so," Touma said, still a little unsure. However there was something he _was_ sure of. "Putting all that aside, it seems you weren't lying about your habit. It is magical. Or was anyway."

"Yeah," Index said sullenly. " _Was_. Now I don't have my pope-class defensive magic."

"Yeah, about that. Just what do you need with Pope-class defence magic anyway? I can't imagine you'd need something like that to give a sermon."

 _*Sigh*_ "I'm on the run. My Walking Church was supposed to protect me until I reached my destination," Index explained.

"And where is that?" Touma asked.

"England. St. George's Cathedral to be exact."

Touma's eyebrows shot up at this. "England? That's halfway across the world, how were you planning on getting there?" He asked.

"I just need to find an Anglican Church. They'll help me get to England."

"Huh. Well you won't find any Christian Churches in Academy City but there should be a few dotted around Tokyo," Touma offered.

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind," Index said.

"So what are you running from?" Touma asked, expecting an answer like _'an abusive family'_ or even no answer at all.

"Enemy magicians from a magic cabal."

Suffice to say that was not something Touma was expecting, though perhaps he should have been.

"There are evil magicians after you? What is this, a comic book?" Touma asked.

"Heh heh," Index chuckled. "Yes, I suppose it does sound like that doesn't it?"

"Are they the reason you were hanging from balcony this morning?"

"Yes. They were chasing me across the rooftops and one of them managed to hit me. I lost my footing and landed on your balcony."

"Jumping across rooftops? These are eight story buildings," Touma said incredulously.

"Well it's not like I had much choice," Index huffed angrily, crossing her arms and pouting adorably. She seemed to have a habit of doing that. "I had to lose them somehow."

"Well, mission accomplished, I guess," Touma said.

"For now maybe, but if I stay here any longer they're bound to find me again." Index made to move.

"What? Are you crazy? You don't have your Walking Church anymore, if they catch you they'll kill you."

"No, I don't think they will. I'm more valuable alive than dead," Index said.

"Oh?" Touma said, quirking an eyebrow. "And how do you figure that?"

"I have the 103,000 grimoires," Index stated.

"The 103,000 what?"

"Grimoires," Index repeated. "They're-"

"I know what they are, I've played fantasy games. They're like magic books, right?"

"Well, essentially, yes. They're magic books about magic by magicians for magicians," Index clarified.

"So where are they? You don't mean to tell me they're under that habit of your do you? 'Cos I looked and there is certainly-"

"Shut up!" Index cried, before he could go any further.

"Okay, okay, sheesh. Hey, where are you going? I was just kidding around," Touma protested as Index got up and moved towards the door.

"I'm leaving," Index said. "Like I said, if I don't leave soon the magicians might find me here."

"And like _I_ said, you don't have your Walking Church anymore. You're defenseless."

"I'm hardly defenseless. And besides, moving around is a better option than staying here. If I do that they're bound to find me and they'll likely blow up your dorm and kill you in the process," she argued.

"You won't have to worry about me, or my dorm for that matter, we can take care of ourselves. You should probably worry about how you're planning on leaving Academy City."

"I'll… leave the same way I came in," Index said uncertainly.

"Oh yeah? And how was that?"

"I sneaked in," Index said proudly, puffing out her chest.

"Really? How'd you manage that?" Touma asked.

"Oh, it was easy. I just walked in. There weren't even any guards at the entrance," said Index, looking like a smug kitten.

"There weren't? That doesn't sound right, why wouldn't- Ah, right. The blackout. The guards must have been busy and there wouldn't be any cameras to spot you."

"There, see? I can-"

"But there won't be a city-wide blackout to help you this time. So remind me again how you planned on sneaking out?"

"Uhhh…"

"Exactly. You have no idea. I, on the other hand, have managed to sneak out without the help of a blackout so I should be able to help you."

"Really?" Index asked, now looking like an excited puppy.

"Yeah. It would have to wait until night though."

"Oh. But they'll have definitely find me here by then," Index pointed out.

"And that's exactly why we won't be here," Touma said grandly.

"Huh?"

"We'll head out for today and when it's time we'll head to the Eastern gate to sneak out."

"Okay. That sounds like a plan," Index agreed enthusiastically.

And with that our heroes set off to pass the time.

* * *

"I look ridiculous," Index complained as she strapped on a goofy looking helmet.

"Well, it's not safe to ride without a helmet and that's the only spare I've got," Touma told her as he swung a leg over his precious motorcycle.

Touma's motorcycle was an advanced machine that he had put together himself from parts his mother got for him and parts he had found around Academy City. Because of this it was even more advanced than anything commercially available in Academy City, which was estimated to be more technologically advanced than the rest of the world by 20 or 30 years.

Weighing at 360 pounds its engine was capable of putting out 45 horsepower and yet didn't sacrifice any maneuverability, being able to turn on a dime and its suspension could absorb the shock of falling off a five-story building never mind any curbs or potholes. It was Touma's pride and joy and with its silver and blue paint-job, Touma had lovingly dubbed it; 'CloudStreak'.

The only problem was the fact that it needed Dust, and _lots_ of it. It needed to be refuelled once every three days of consistent use and Dust wasn't exactly plentiful here in Academy City. Or Earth for that matter.

But, for now, all of that was a non-issue as he had topped it up weeks ago and hadn't needed it during the school term. Thanks to that he had kept in in a bike shed he rented just down the street from his dorm and it was all nice and shiny.

All of this he had told Index on their way to the shed excluding the part about the Dust and instead saying it ran on a rare fuel source. For some reason none of this quelled her fear getting on the bike and she had come up with a hundred and one reasons to not have to.

"But it looks dumb!" Index continued.

"Well let me put it this way. If those magicians hunting you show up, would you rather run or ride away from them?" Touma questioned.

 _*Sigh*_ "Alright I guess that's fair," Index relented. "But I want it on the record that I was against this."

"Duly noted," Touma said, putting on his own, considerably more stylish helmet. "Now, sit down and hold on tight. We're goin' for a ride." Touma grinned behind his helmet and gunned the engine.

As soon as he left the shed the automatic door closed behind him and he drove east, towards district six to kill time.

"Well it took longer than expected but we're finally here," Touma said, just grateful to have gotten to the damn amusement park.

"And just what do you intend to do here?" asked Index, still grumpy about something beyond Touma's comprehension.

See, on their way here Touma was driving past a footbridge when a bunch of metal pipes and stuff came flying over the ridge. Thankfully there wasn't too much so most of the projectiles hit Touma and got knocked away before they could hit Index but some managed to hit his precious CloudStreak, scratching its pristine paint-job.

Big mistake.

Touma pulled over and told Index to wait with the motorcycle while he went to deal sweet justice upon that dead man's ass. Unfortunately by the time he had gotten down there the guy responsible had already gotten his ass kicked by a little girl, who Touma identified as a member of Judgement, from her armband.

That alone was nearly enough to have him walk away and forget all thoughts of righteous vengeance but then he saw that she was having a little trouble with an Esper who could create illusions. After helping the Judgement girl take him down and digging a discreet kick into the guy she told him was responsible for the scratches on his motorcycle, he went on his merry way.

After that they stopped to get a quick snack because Index was feeling hungry and who should they run into but The Railgun herself? While Index went inside the grocery store Mikoto saw Touma and demanded another duel from him but he quickly shot her down telling her he was showing a tourist around the city.

Letting her temper get the best of her she fried all the machines in the immediate vicinity, including his motorcycle. However, he didn't realize that until Index was ready to leave. He had tried starting the engine but it wouldn't respond so they decided to get some lunch. By the time they were finished it was already past noon and they hadn't even reached their destination yet.

However all of that was now in the past because now they were finally at their long- awaited destination.

The amusement park.

Touma could not think of a better place to waste time, except perhaps and arcade. However, for their current purposes an amusement park was probably the better option. It was large, open and had enough people dressed in funny clothes that Index wouldn't stand out _too_ much.

And with that Touma paid for an all day, unlimited ticket and went inside being dragged by his hand courtesy of Index.

"Touma, Touma, come on, come on!" Index said, excitedly dragging Touma deeper into the amusement park.

"Yeah, I'm coming Index, Touma said, humoring the girls impatience. "And my name is just 'Touma' you don't have to say it twice every time."

On their way to the amusement park the duo had realized that Touma had not shared his name with Index and when he did Index had taken every opportunity to say it as often as she could.

"I know, I just like saying your name," Index replied happily. While Touma thought that to be a bit weird he let it slide as just one of Index's quirks.

"So, where do you want to go first?" Touma asked Index.

"I don't know." Index admitted. "Where do you think we should go?" Index had told him that she had never been to an amusement park so Touma was willing to take the lead.

"Well, the faster rides will be our first stop, then we'll break for snacks and close the day off with some of the slower rides," Touma said laying out his plans for the day.

"Sounds good to me," Index said, trusting Touma's judgement.

* * *

"Ooohhh, I feel nauseous," Index complained, while leaning on Touma for support. Touma chuckled and wrapped an arm around her petite shoulders as he half led, half dragged her to a table to sit down at.

"I told you that you might not be able to handle that ride," Touma chided.

"Oh, I know, but it looked so _fun_."

"Well you take a break for now and I'll get us some snacks, okay?"

"Okay," Index agreed sitting down. Touma went off to a stand to get some snack for Index and quickly returned handing Index a drink to help settle her stomach.

Looking around and seeing that there weren't any people in earshot Touma spoke to Index in a low tone, "So, about your pursuers. Is there anything I should know about them?" Touma asked.

Index thought about it a little before answering. "Well, one there's one who specializes in fire and one who uses a nodachi. The fire magician he uses Germanic runes as the basis for his magic, as well as chants so he'll likely stay back and support his partner."

"The one who uses the nodachi is incredibly strong and fast, so I wouldn't recommend engaging her in close quarters. She can also use magic in conjunction with her nodachi, using it to attack at a distance so I'd be careful about that too," Index continued.

"How does she manage that?" Touma inquired.

"I'm not entirely sure," Index said. "I just know that it was powerful enough that it tore up an entire street and would have done the same with me if it weren't for my Walking Church."

"Well we can't rely on that now, so it would be best for us to just avoid it altogether," Touma said.

Touma and Index had agreed that the magic protection still left in Index headpiece wasn't enough to justify the chance that it could still be tracked so Touma had removed the magic on it as well. When Index asked how he did that Touma just winked at her and said, "A magician never reveals his secrets."

This ticked Index off as she felt that she had been rather forthcoming with Touma, but Touma knew she was holding back information as well and he told her as much. After that they both agreed that they were entitled to their own secrets and didn't bring it up again.

"Is there anything else I should know? Things like weaknesses, strategies or anything like that?"

"Well, the woman with the nodachi clearly uses magic to achieve her superhuman strength and speed, so if you intend on engaging her you'll have to move fast to use your magic negating power on her."

Though Touma slyly refused to answer her questions regarding his powers Index was sharp enough to know that it couldn't have destroyed her Walking Church _twice_ through any kind of brute force. So she quickly deduced that he had some way of simply negating magic altogether or something like that.

"Got it," Touma confirmed. "And the fire wizard?"

"His power is entirely magical, so you shouldn't have too much of a problem with him. However he _is_ powerful so don't take him lightly. He very well might be able to summon fire faster than you can negate it."

"Noted. Is that all?" Touma asked.

"It's all I can think of right now but if I think of anything else I'll tell you," Index said.

"Great. Than come with me, we'll walk around a little," said Touma, taking Index's hand and leading her back to the fairgrounds.

Another few hours passed and Touma and Index were sitting on the Ferris wheel with Index cuddling a small plush toy lion Touma had won in a game of darts. Index was sitting quietly but as she was gazing at the sunset Touma could tell something was bothering her.

"Is something wrong Index?" he asked, hoping he wasn't overstepping his boundaries.

"…It's nothing," she replied after a brief pause.

"It doesn't sound like nothing," Touma probed.

"It's just… This is the most fun I've had all year and after today… I'll be on the run again" Index confided.

"Is that was this is about?" Touma asked. "Relax," he continued. "You'll be fine. You're tougher then you give yourself credit for. Though it would probably be easier if you'd suck up that pride and just wear something that wouldn't stand out so much."

Index remained quiet and held her toy lion closer. "It'll be dark soon. We should get going," she said morosely.

"Yeah..."

Touma and Index got off when their carriage reached the bottom and headed towards Touma's CloudStreak. It might have been hi imagination but he thought Index was wrapping her arms around him a little tighter than was necessary.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Here it is, another chapter. This one felt a little filler-y but next chapter will have Touma's fight scene so bear with me for a little longer. Also last chapter I forgot to include the author's note so I've fixed that._

 ** _Explanations:  
This Chapter in General:_** _Like I said this chapter may feel kind of filler-y but I needed it to show Touma's increased proactivity.  
 **CloudStreak:** And there you go, one little RWBY element and a little teaser to hint at just how the RWBY-verse ties into the Toaru-verse in my fic.  
 **Reaction to Judgement:** A little hint about Touma's relationship with the local law-enforcement.  
 **Touma & Index Keeping Secrets:** Perhaps it felt a little shoe-horned in but I used it to help show Touma's secrecy regarding his abilities and his perceptiveness in regards to other people and Index keeping secrets is kind of a given considering her situation._


	4. The Magician and The Saint

**_The Magician and The Saint_**

* * *

 **Well here it is, another chapter before we get started let me just say that I'm really sorry it took so long, I've been pretty busy with other stuff. The next chapter should be out a lot sooner than this one.**

 **And with that, enjoy this chapter**

* * *

 **July 20th**

* * *

"They're leaving the amusement park," Kaori said into a magical communication device, while peering at a certain duo through a set of binoculars. "Are you ready on your end?"

"Yeah," came the voice on the other end. "And you're _positive_ they'll head this way?"

"Stiyl, we went over this," Kaori said, frustration creeping into her voice.

"I know, I just don't want to put all this effort into something only to find out that they're going through the south gate or something."

"You don't have to worry about that," Kaori said. "The closest Anglican Church is in Eastern Tokyo so they'll head through the eastern gate."

"If you say so," came Stiyl's reply, not willing to argue with the older girl. "When are you getting here?"

"They're being forced to slow down due to traffic and stoplights so I should be there before them," she relayed, already on the move.

"Then I guess I'll just wait," said Stiyl, pulling out another cigarette.

* * *

While weaving through the cars still out despite the late hour, a call came through on Touma's Scroll. After Biribiri had fried CloudStreak Touma and Index had lunch at the same restaurant he had gone to last night, reminding him that he had left it there.

Thank God for small mercies he supposed.

The little white device popped up from its special holder on the left of Touma's windshield and he pressed receive without checking who was calling.

"Hello?" Touma greeted into the earpiece that was connected to his Scroll.

 _"Kami-yan, where have you been? You haven't replied to any of my texts."_

"Aogami? Yeah, sorry about that I've been busy."

 _"What could have you so busy you'd skip out on the first day of remedials?"_

"Shit, I completely forgot about that! Is Komoe-sensei mad at me?"

 _"Oh yeah. You're in for it when you get back. I'm kind of jealous."_

"Oh God…"

 _"Don't judge me. So, why **did** you skip today?"_

"Showing a tourist around. She's a little in over her head."

 _"Oh? She? Kami-yan, you playboy."_

"Okay, I'm hanging up now."

 _"Don't-forget-to-"_

Touma sighed as he quickly tapped the screen of his Scroll and promptly brought his attention back to the road. Wouldn't want any drivers to get mad at him now would we?

 _'Wait. Where are the drivers?'_ Touma quickly swivelled his head around to inspect the streets around him but no matter where he looked there wasn't a car to be seen. _'That's impossible, there's **always**_ _people out on the streets.'_

Quickly realizing something was amiss, Touma stopped smack-dab in the middle of the road.

"Touma? What's wrong?" Index asked from behind him.

"I don't know yet. There's no one here."

Index, who had been deep in thought, quickly realized he was right and just why that was. "They're here. They must have placed a rune down."

The eastern gate was only half a kilometre away from here and he could just barely see it. But as he stared he noticed something else. Two silhouettes were approaching from that direction as well.

Noticing their leisurely pace Touma reciprocated, moving CloudStreak forward slowly. Seeing that they weren't making any threatening moves he refrained from looking _closer_.

"Touma? What do we do?" Index asked quietly.

"Just leave it to me Index. I'll take care of this," Touma reassured her.

When Touma was about 60 meters from the figures he could finally make out their features. The man, standing on his right, was tall, at least two meters, with bright red hair, numerous piercings and strange looking priest robes.

The woman was dressed equally strangely. She had a plain, white shirt that was tied of at the bottom, exposing her midriff and jeans with one of the legs torn off. She also carried a giant nodachi _._ There was no doubt that these were the people after Index.

"Get off the bike and give us the girl. If you do that we promise we won't hurt you," the woman called out.

" _The girl_ has a name you know. It's Index. What's yours?" Touma asked.

After some brief hesitation the woman answered, "My name is Kaori Kanzaki. Please don't make me give you my other name."

 _"Her other name?"_ Touma whispered to Index.

 _"She means her magic name. Magicians only reveal it when they're going all-out on someone,"_ She explained. Filing this away and adding it to everything else he knew about magic names (which wasn't much), Touma turned back to the woman.

"And your friend?" he asked.

"Stiyl Magnus. Now quit stalling and give us the girl," Stiyl growled out making to move forward.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Touma called out. "One more step and you never see this girl again."

"Do you intend to fight us?" Kaori asked. "Surely this girl has told you who we are. You are no match for us."

"Yeah, I know who you are," Touma said. "But do you know who _I_ am?" he continued smirking behind his helmet. He discretely tugged his Scroll from its holder on his bike and slid it into the holster fitted into the special sleeve he wore around his jacket's sleeve.

Stiyl and Kaori, however, were looking at each other as they recalled their discussion regarding that very question. _Who was this boy?_ Both had tried to find out and both had failed to turn up anything useful. All they had on the boy was a name. _Touma Kamijou._ There was absolutely nothing special about this boy. In fact, in a city filled with extraordinary people he was considerably _un-extraordinary._

"Yeah, we know who you are," said Stiyl. "Touma Kamijou, less than average grades, no extra-curricular activities and no abilities to speak of."

The only thing of note, that they could find, was that he was once a member of Judgement until he dropped out before even graduating. That had only lowered their opinions of him, thinking that he couldn't handle the effort.

Touma grinned a shark-toothed grin. He knew it. They didn't know that he got into numerous fights and an unbelievable amount of trouble on a regular basis. For some reason that was kept off of Touma's record and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. Not that he was ungrateful, as it meant he could do things like, say…

Take on powerful people with unbelievable abilities in order to help people. Kind of like what he was doing now, now that he thought about it. _'Well let's just hope this "protection" doesn't let up today. If what Index said is true things are gonna get **loud.** '_

 _"Wrap your arms around my neck and your legs around my waist. Don't be afraid to be too tight and no matter what **don't let go** ,"_ Touma whispered. Index wanted to question him but realized now wasn't' the time for that. She would just have to trust Touma's judgement.

After Index did as he instructed he revved the engine. "That's not true," he said. Then he thought about it. "Okay the first two are but the last one isn't." At that the two magicians did a stop-take. "I have the un-rivalled ability of getting into trouble. That, and getting away with doing the stupidest things."

At that Touma raced off, barrelling straight towards the two magicians. This didn't elicit the reaction he had been hoping for. Instead of diving to the side and out of his way like he had been hoping they simply prepared themselves to, presumably, attack him as he drove past. But he had expected, and planned for that. As he got closer he prepared himself, tensed his legs, and he _jumped_.

Over the front of his bike, over the stunned magicians and over to the other end of the street. He curled himself into a ball, Index still wrapped around him, and he executed a picture perfect flip and landed in a crouch with a wince.

Not because of the landing but because of his motorcycle's. As he landed he heard the screech of metal on asphalt and he just knew that it would take weeks, if not months, of work to get CloudStreak looking pristine again. He promised he'd make the magicians pay for that.

But first things first, "Index, get going!" Touma cried, while letting Index off his back. "I'll hold them off while you run!"

"But-" Index tried to say.

"Just go Index," Touma repeated. "I'll be fine, just worry about yourself, okay?" Index looked like she wanted to argue some more but, at a shove from Touma pushing her towards the gate, she knew there was no arguing with him. Index simply nodded and ran to the gates before Touma could notice the tears running down her cheeks.

Turning back around, Touma saw Kaori running in the direction Index had just left in. _"Oh no you don't,"_ he muttered under his breath. He reached into his custom-made silver and blue jacket and pulled out a shuriken.

It was made of simple tempered steel cut out of saw blades he had bought at the local hardware store. It was vaguely swastika shaped, with four points curved backwards in a crescent shape, a wide space in the middle, a hole right in the centre and the blades sharpened to a razors edge. It was painted black with a coiled, silver, oriental dragon painted around the hole in the centre.

Touma had drawn, sighted and launched the shuriken in the time it took Kaori to notice that he had moved at all. Thanks to that she didn't notice the little black blur as it streaked its way towards her.

"Agh!" She cried as it struck her in the leg. She stumbled to the ground before she had even passed Touma and looked down to see what had hit her. It was then that she noticed the shuriken embedded in her thigh.

"Didn't see that one coming did you?" Touma taunted.

"Grrr," Kaori growled, narrowing her eyes. She pulled out the shuriken and unknotted her shirt. She used the shuriken to cut off a strip of her shirt and used it to as makeshift bandage to tie around her wound. As she did this Stiyl stepped forward and gestured with his card.

"Fortis931," he said. Recognizing that as a magic name Touma drew two more shuriken from within his jacket and threw them. Stiyl simply waved the card in his hand and flames shot out from it. The heat from the fire created enough air pressure to throw the shurikens completely off course.

However Touma didn't have time to pay that too much mind as Kaori was getting up as well. She threw the shuriken he'd thrown at her right back at him but he simply caught it and proceeded to wipe the blood off with a cloth he pulled out of one of his numerous pockets.

"Thanks," he said casually, as if she had simply passed him the salt from across the table. "I was wanting that back. Every little bit counts for a poor student like me y'know."

Kaori replied by slashing at him. Or at least, that's what Touma thought had happened. Faster than he could even register she had drawn slashed and sheathed, the sheer force tearing up the street with him in its path, forcing him to dodge but the trail of destruction continued right past him and towards…

"Kiya!" Came a feminine scream. Touma whirled around and saw Index on her ass and a boom-gate flying through the air.

 _God-damn!_ Touma had heard stories of Adam Taurus, of how he could level a building with a single slash, but that had required time to charge up. This woman had just torn up an entire street _faster than he could even register it._ That would have been impressive enough on its own but factor in the 2 meter long sword and it became unbelievable.

But he didn't have time to dwell on that as he heard the rush of oncoming footsteps, whirling back around again and seeing Kaori trying to rush past him to get to Index again. He moved to intercept but then a bright light erupted from in between them. Stiyl had thrown a fireball and he wasn't stopping, throwing fireball after fireball until there was so much fire that it kept burning even without fuel.

"Sorry about that," he said, walking towards Kaori and stopping when he was right next to her. "He was getting annoying." Looking into the fire Kaori did not see anything moving to away from it so she let her guard down ever so slightly.

"I must properly tend to my leg," she said. "Are you be okay going after Index on your own?"

"Yeah, I'm fine with it," Stiyl replied.

"I'm not," came a voice from above.

* * *

Index got up and turned around to see if the magicians were going to send another attack her way and seeing that they weren't, made to head off again. But, just as she turned around a bright light illuminated the street and her eyes were, once again drawn to the fight. Or more specifically, the boy fighting for her.

She did not know why he was going to such lengths for her, someone he barely knew, but she was grateful that he was even if she hadn't _technically_ asked him to. Back in his dorm she had tried to appear confident but, truthfully, she had known her chances were bleak.

They had looked up the closest Anglican Church and it was very far into Eastern Tokyo and without her Walking Church Index had seriously doubted that she would have made it outside of Academy City, much less to the church.

If it weren't for him, an unknown, she was certain that the magicians would have attacked much sooner and she would never have gotten even this far and for that she swore she would repay him if she could.

But now here he was, doing so much more than he promised. Well, okay he promised to help her sneak out so he was kind of doing what he promised but it felt like he was doing more than he promised and made Index feel guilty.

He was fighting her battles and, if what she was seeing was any indication, he was losing. This was why she was so reluctant to involve innocent people in her fights. The secrecy of magic aside, they couldn't handle a fight with a magician and were sure to get hurt.

But it appeared that both had overestimated his abilities and now he was paying the price. She should have known better than to let an innocent person get caught up in her battle, they always wound up worse off for it.

In fact, she was sure that was why the other magicians never involved innocent people too. Innocent people were supposed to remain ignorant of magic at all costs.

Wait a minute. The magicians had made sure that the civilians had all left before they made their move. That likely meant that they were unwilling to attack with witnesses. So if there were witnesses…

Index had just thought of the perfect way to repay Touma.

* * *

After Stiyl had thrown his first fireball, Touma had moved to negate it but then Stiyl had thrown at least half a dozen more and the air quickly became too thin to breathe.

While Touma could have just negated the fire to stop it from sucking up all the oxygen, he decided it would be far easier to just get out of there. So he did that by jumping 15 feet in the air and on his way down drew and threw six more shurikens.

Kaori reacted quickly and slashed all of them out of the air and somehow hit Touma as well, forcing him to clumsily roll across the ground on his landing. However he used this to his advantage as he rolled right up to Kaori, springing to his feet and drawing a black, seven-inch cylinder and pressing a button on its side, causing it to expand to 27 inches in length.

This was Touma's personal Power-Up Stun Baton. It was commercially available in Academy City for self-defence and, in a city with so many people with super powers very few people didn't see the value in it. It could output 12,000,000 volts allowing its electricity to pass through even 3/4 inch thick clothing and at 5 milliamps it could stop even the toughest of Espers. He'd even added a steel weight at the tip to add power to his swings for all his bad-guy-bashing needs.

It also differed from most stun batons in that it was longer than average, reaching 27 inches at its full length and seven when collapsed. Most telescopic batons didn't extend that far because at that point it becomes far more liable to break. For that matter, most stun batons weren't collapsible because it was difficult to carry the charge and expanding mechanism in the same space.

However, the Power-Up was made in Academy City and was state-of-the-art. Its shaft was made out of a strong, light-weight iron-aluminium alloy that overcame the weakness caused by most conventional telescopic batons and it was entirely electrified.

Touma also put in a proper motor system that did away with the original spring-lock mechanism it came with allowing him to prod with the tip without it collapsing in on itself.

This was a feature that Touma would put to good use as he thrust into Kaori's stomach while he sprung up from his roll. However she reacted quickly and used her sheathed sword to turn it aside, causing Touma to veer left.

He used the momentum to duck low and stick out his leg, intending to swipe Kaori's legs out from under her. However, her damned reflexes kicked in again and she back flipped away, clearing the way for Stiyl to attack.

"Ash to ash, dust to dust, squeamish bloody rood!" As Stiyl finished chanting two swords made of flame appeared in his hands. In his right he held a bright orange flame, in the left, a whitish-blue one.

He swung both horizontally at Touma's neck, in a scissoring motion, fully intending to separate Touma's head from his shoulders.

However on contact they both dissolved into nothingness. "That won't work, I'm afraid. No supernatural power works on me," he politely informed the stunned magician before backhanding him across the face with his baton, sending him flying.

He turned away from the flying ragdoll and set his eyes on the more predominant threat.

The multiple, near invisible wires that had wrapped themselves around his arms and legs… apparently.

"Okay, when did this happen – how did this happen?!" He asked, only half expecting an answer.

"My Nanasen is a magical technique that allows me to control seven wires and use them as I wish. It appears that only _some_ supernatural powers don't work on you," Kaori said.

 _'Impossible,'_ Touma thought. _'Nothing's ever withstood my Imagine Breaker before, nothing! Which means these wires can't be magical. But then how is she controlling them?'_

 _'Wait. Maybe the wires themselves aren't magical, just the way she's **controlling** them. But if that's the case then that means she won't be able to control them while they're in contact with me. So if she's not keeping them wrapped around me how _ are _they keeping me here?'_

Touma wriggled his wrist and, through the range of motion he was allowed, determined that it was anchored to a nearby building. Repeating the process with the rest of his limbs he discovered the same thing for his other arm and legs.

Or _one_ of his legs at least. The wire around his right leg was considerably looser than the ones around his other limbs. Loose enough to tear free he reckoned. A good thing too, as he had dropped his Power-Up.

"Hmm? Nothing to say?" Kaori inquired, curious about his sudden quietness.

"Just a question," Touma said. "Why _are_ you after Index? She said something about 103,000 grimoires but she's obviously not carrying them on her. Do you think she knows where they are? She can't be the only one, right? No organization would entrust the location to something so valuable to one little girl."

"Do you really not know?" Kaori asked disbelievingly. "She does have them on her. She has them memorized."

"Oh." Oh indeed. Any hope of dissuading them from going after Index and instead having them target someone else had died with that statement. "So, what? She has, like, a photographic memory or something?"

"That's right. She-" Whatever Kaori was going to say Touma would never know as his foot lashed out, catching her sword's guard and flicking it out of the sheath. After kicking the sword into the air Touma brought his foot back and prepared another kick, hitting Kaori right in the chest.

After sending her flying Touma pulled like he'd never pulled before and the razor thin wires came loose.

Touma quickly caught the sword and held it in reverse grip as he untangled himself from the wires and wrapped them around his left hand. After finishing that he brought the nodachi forward into a proper stance. "Well, that was fun but I'm not really into that sort of stuff."

"Wha- What are you?" Kaori was picking herself up off the ground and looked at the boy before her. Few people had managed to get the jump on her like that and that put him on a very exclusive list.

However, that was not what had captured her attention. What had was the fact that he was _glowing_.

* * *

 **A/N:** _Dun-dun-daaa! Cliff-hanger! Don't worry, like I said, for those reading this chapter as it comes out, next chapter should be out soon. For those of you reading it a little bit later… Well it's still a cliff-hanger I guess.  
Just a side note, I've made a few revisions in the past chapters like adding the dates and stuff, just little things, however one of them was a spelling mistake that does change the plot a little bit, see if you can find it ;).  
Also, thanks to Guest reviewer #2 for pointing out my mistakes. I appreciate it so much that I won't mention the mistake you left in your own review ;P. People like you are the reason people like me write on this site.  
And thanks to all the reviewers who said they're enjoying my story so far, it means a lot to me.  
 **  
Explanations:  
Magic Communication Device:** I don't really remember if Kaori and Stiyl used cell phones but regardless, I like the idea of them as technophobes or at least starting out that way.  
 **Eastern Gate:** I also don't really remember the exit and entrance points of Academy City but one gate at each of the cardinal points just makes sense.  
 **Touma's Scroll:** Why call it a Scroll even though I called it a cell in previous chapter? Classic misdirection.  
 **Index's Choice:** Why did Index come back despite being ordered to run and having the best opportunity to do so? Because that's the kind of girl she is.  
 **Adam Taurus:** Make of that what you will._


	5. The Huntsman

**_The Huntsman_** _  
_

* * *

 **July 20th**

* * *

"Wha- What are you?"

Not understanding what she meant Touma inspected himself and realized what she was talking about.

"Oh, that," he said, as if being a human night light was normal for him. "Well, uh... You know." Touma quickly dialled down the brightness as he thought up an answer. "A magician never reveals his secrets. You should know that Kanzaki," he said with a wink that she couldn't see through his helmet.

The truth was, he'd had to _seriously_ reinforce his body with Aura in order to keep the wires from shearing right through him, which was what had caused the glow.

And speaking of Aura he could feel that he'd lost a not-inconsiderable amount of Aura pulling off that little stunt.

Bringing his left arm up vertically as if to guard his face he pressed the button on his Scroll, causing it to expand from his sleeve. The sleeve was designed to store his Scroll in the inner forearm allowing it to expand to his right when he had his arm like he did now.

Taking a quick glance he saw that his Aura was half-past green. Pulling himself free from those wires had apparently taken more Aura than he had anticipated. Basic physics at work he supposed, less surface area equalled more force focused on a specific point.

"Ugh…" came a groaning noise. Touma looked towards the source of the noise and saw Stiyl getting back up.

"Oh? You're up early Sunshine." Touma honestly hadn't been expecting him to get up anytime soon. He must've been made of some pretty sturdy stuff.

"Oof!" And so was Kaori if that flying kick she hit him with was anything to go by.

Fortunately, Touma had somehow managed to hold onto her sword despite feeling like he had been hit by a bus.

Another check on his Scroll while he was lying flat on his back indicated that Kaori's kick had been enough to push him just past a quarter-to yellow.

"Stiyl," Kaori called out. "Can you stand?" Stiyl stumbled as he tried to but he got there eventually.

"Yeeah. I…I thiiink sooo," he slurred.

"Maybe you should sit down, champ," Touma offered.

"Sh-shut up!" Stiyl yelled as he stumbled again. "Ugh…"

"Maybe-" Kaori started.

"Dooon't you start tooo," Stiyl growled/slurred.

"Very well, just don't get in my way," Kaori commanded as she bent down to pick up the stun baton that Touma had dropped.

"I'm gonna want that back later," Touma said.

"I could say the same to you," Kaori shot back.

"Fair enough," Touma said as he once again got himself into a stance. Touma and Kaori dashed towards each other and their weapons clashed.

Touma had the reach advantage but Kaori was just so _damn fast_. Even with the wound in her leg and the bruise that was no doubt forming on her chest, she still had him on the defensive. He would hate to see her in tip-top condition. Meanwhile, Stiyl was massaging his temples trying to clear his head. After a brief rub he shook his head and started chanting.

 _"One of the five great elements from which the world is constructed. The great flame of the beginning. It is a light of blessing that raises life and a light of judgment that punishes evil. It is overflowing with calm blessings and with freezing misfortune that destroys cold darkness. Its name is fire and its role is the sword. Be manifested and become the power that eats into my body!"_

Upon the end of the chant a bright light flared to life and from it, a monster straight from the pits of hell itself emerged. Only it couldn't be. It was wielding what looked like a Christian crucifix. Why did it have that?

"This is Innocentius, the witch hunting pope. It's meaning… I will surely kill you." The monster roared as it swung its flaming cross down on Touma like a pickaxe and Touma responded by bringing up the nodachi to cancel it.

However the cross remained, held at bay, but still intact.

 _'How is this happening? Why is my Semblance not working?'_ Touma thought. That's when it he saw it. His Imagine Breaker _was_ working, the flames simply regenerated faster than he could cancel them.

Never having faced something like this before Touma quickly thought of a way to stall for time.

"Why the hell does this thing have a cross?" He asked in a strained voice. "Aren't demons supposed to be allergic to those or something?"

"Innocentius isn't a demon, it's a pope-level fire spell," Stiyl informed him.

"So why does it have a cross?" Touma asked, still looking for an opening even as he was forced to channel more Aura to his legs.

"Can't you tell? It is a representation of my faith. I am of the Anglican Church. More specifically, I am a member of Necessarius."

 _'The Anglican Church?'_ Touma thought. _'Isn't that Index's church? Why are people from her church targeting her?'_ Touma voiced his thoughts out loud and the answer he got was not what he expected.

"We must," Kaori interjected. "It is the only way to save her." Touma took a moment before replying.

"Yeah, I don't get it," Touma got out before grunting as he was forced to one knee by the monster before him, bringing his other hand to the back of the blade to brace himself.

"As you said, Index has a photographic memory," Kaori explained. "That means she never forgets. Over 85% of her memory is taken up by the grimoires. The remaining 15% is all she has left to function and that 15% gets taken up quickly thanks to her perfect memory ability."

"That means her memory must be erased yearly in order to keep her brain from overloading. She forgot us and that is why she thinks we are her enemies. She does not remember how close we were."

Touma took another moment to collect his thoughts as he worked his way to his feet once more. "That sounds… _so dumb_. On _so many_ levels."

"What?"

Touma tilted the nodachi forcing the cross he was blocking to slide to his left. Once he was free from the blade lock (or in this case blade/crucifix lock) he back flipped a few meters away from the flaming monster and got a relaxed, but ready stance.

"I mean, do you really expect me to believe any of that? Do _you_ believe any of that?" Touma asked.

Stiyl scowled and moved to sic Innocentius on him again.

"Stiyl, wait," Kaori commanded. "What are you saying?" She asked Touma.

"Well for starters, those numbers are complete horse shit. They're completely arbitrary and mean absolutely nothing. Secondly, do you really expect me to believe that you're Index's friends?"

"And what would you know about the human mind?" Kaori inquired, ignoring his second question.

"Well my father studied neuroscience and psychology and he taught me a thing or two. Plus, I have friends who are psychics and everyone in Academy City is required to know at least a little bit about brain chemistry for the Power Curriculum Program, so… I think I know a little bit more about it than you."

Kaori was forced to concede his point. "So what-"

"Enough of this! Innocentius, kill him!" Stiyl bellowed, apparently having had more than enough of the chit-chat. While Touma was forced on the defensive again Stiyl turned to Kaori. "Don't let him get to you. We're on a mission."

"I know that," Kaori insisted.

"Do you?" Kaori didn't answer, instead she joined Innocentius in engaging the boy once more. Stiyl stayed back, the summoning of Innocentius taking a heavy toll on his body and forcing him to take things slow and leave things to Innocentius and Kaori.

* * *

As Stiyl watched the other boy get his ass kicked up and down the street by the saint and the monster something felt off. Innocentius was getting weaker, more restricted in his movements and taking both more and less of a toll on Stiyl. What was going on?

Stiyl looked around trying to see what the cause of this phenomenon was. He was sure that the runes he placed around the surrounding area were still on firmly, he had made sure of it.

 _So what was it?_

Deciding this warranted more of his attention than the fight he couldn't partake in, he set off to find the source of the disturbance.

* * *

 _'Godammit, how is she_ still _so damn fast?'_ Touma thought to himself as he blocked another swing from Kaori. He had faced super-fast opponents before and it showed in the half a dozen or so cuts he had landed on her during their exchange but Touma was definitely coming up short, the only thing carrying him forward being his Aura which was steadily being chipped away as the fight dragged on.

With the Kaori's hit-and-run tactics opening his guard Innocentius was able to come in swinging his overly large crucifix. All this damage combined had knocked him to at least half-past yellow and if he took any more of this he wouldn't last much longer.

"You're good to have lasted this long against me," Kaori said. So many things came to Touma's mind at that but he kept his mouth shut. "But all you have is power, strength and speed."

"It's gotten me this far," Touma answered back. What neither of them mentioned was that she was matching him in all of these regards and Innocentius was no slouch either.

"But it will not get you any further," Kaori informed him. "Not if you wish to defeat Innocentius and I at the same time. You lack the skill and precision necessary for such a feat."

Touma knew she was right. He was only an intermediate swordsman at best. He had taken kendo classes before but had quickly dropped out when he advanced to the point that he could defeat anyone in his class through skill alone.

Rather than advance his swordsmanship, he had instead decided to focus more on his other skills, like archery and martial arts to give himself a more rounded skillset, allowing himself to remain a very good novice at kendo, a mistake he was sincerely coming to regret right now as Kaori once again got within his guard.

Prodding him with the Power-Up, his muscles briefly stopped functioning, briefly, but long enough for Innocentius to take a swing and launch him right into a brick wall.

The wall cracked as he hit it and Touma fell to his knees as he slid from the small crater he had left in the wall. "Just give up. There is no shame in admitting defeat after having gotten this far," said Kaori as she approached him, stopping about 12 meters away.

"Right back 'atcha," Touma said, catching his breath as he stood back up. He placed his left hand on his right shoulder and shifted it around a little to get the kinks out of it. _'Who am I kidding? These two are totally kicking my ass! If I want to win, I'll have to stack the deck in my favour.'_

"Why do you go this far for a girl you only met today?" Kaori asked, genuinely curious.

"I could ask you the same thing," Touma shot back. "Why chase a girl cross-country if she supposedly means so much to you?"

"I told you-"

"Yeah, yeah, her brain will explode if you don't wipe her memories and because you do, she's forgotten who you are and thinks you're her enemies. Forgive me if I still think that's bullshit."

"I don't care what you-"

"You wanna know what I think? I think that you're targeting Index because she pissed off your organisation and now you want to make an example out of her."

"No! God no! Index is a precious friend to me and it hurts more than you could ever imagine to have to do this to her."

"Yeah, I'm still not buying it."

"I _don't_. _Care_. What you. _Think_ ," Kaori growled, grinding her teeth together.

"But I'm willing to bet you care what Index thinks, don't you?" Kaori stayed quiet at this and Touma knew he'd hit a mark. "Let me fill you in. Index thinks you're both nothing but a couple of worthless, lowlife, second-rate magician scum, from some no-good, two-bit, useless magic cabal."

"SHUT UP!" Kaori screamed as she threw the Power-Up at him like a bullet from a gun.

Unfortunately for Kaori, Touma had experience with those. As it flew towards him, Touma flicked the nodachi up, causing the baton to go spinning into the air and he dropped Kaori's blade onto his foot, balancing it, as he reached out and caught the baton on its way down.

As he caught it, he flicked its switch and it collapsed in on itself and he sheathed it within his jacket. He did all this without even once taking his eyes off of Kaori.

After the baton was safely stowed away he kicked the nodachi back into his hand and gave Kaori a sly, unseen smirk. He had just stacked the deck in his favour. Kaori was now unarmed and Innocentius was too far away to be of any immediate help to her.

"If she's really such a _'precious'_ friend to you, why do you need to pretend to be her enemies at all. I mean it's not like you just wiped her memories, dumped her in some alleyway and started chasing her right?"

"..."

"Oh my God. You did, didn't you?"

"Shut up. You wouldn't understand," Kaori said with venom. "How could you? You've only known her for a day. I've known her for years, Stiyl and I both have. And every year, without fail, she would cease to know us."

"We would spend 364 days a year building memories with her, making scrapbooks and writing diaries, all so she could have something to latch onto after she woke back up. But it was all worthless."

"She would wake up with no idea who we were and whenever we tried to tell her how close we were, how much we all meant to each other, she would look us in the eye and say _'I'm sorry, I don't know who you are'_." At this Kaori had started tearing up.

"And then we would do it all over again, 364 days spent in each other's company recreating that closeness, that comradeship and then, when that 365th day came we would hug each other, crying, comforting one another and no matter what we said, no matter how many times we promised we would still be there for her when she woke up, ready to build new memories she would say, _'I don't want to have to rebuild new memories. I don't want to have to lose these memories that I cherish. I don't want to lose you'._ " Kaori was full-blown crying now.

"You can't know what that's like! It hurt so much to have to do it over and over again so we stopped! We stopped making memories with her, we stopped getting close to her, we stopped being her friends and we let her believe we were her enemies so that when it came time to erase her memories again there would be nothing worth losing!" At this Kaori collapsed to her knees, sobs racking her entire body.

"I'm sorry." Kaori paid no mind to Touma as he said this so he went on. "I know now that you weren't lying. Those tears of yours aren't fake. Index really meant a lot to you didn't she?"

"More than she could ever know," Kaori whispered.

"Then why the _hell_ do you keep letting it happen?"

"What?" Kaori asked.

"If she means so much to you why do you keep taking her memories? It doesn't take much to know that those statistics you gave me earlier are complete bullshit so you know there's no reason to keep taking her memories."

"How dare you? You haven't seen her when her memories become too much. She's so weak and sickly she can barely even stay awake. She hurts so much yet she hides it for the sake of her friends. If it's not her memories that are the cause of it then what is?"

"You said she's memorized the grimoires right? Maybe it's an attempt by the Anglican Church to erase those from her memory," Touma said trying to offer an explanation, any explanation!

"Impossible. The Church were the ones who had her memorize them."

"Then maybe it's some ploy to keep Index under the Church's thumb! I don't know why she displays physical symptoms, I just know that her perfect memory is not the reason for it," Touma insisted.

"Then what is!? We've tried everything to make sure she doesn't have to lose her memories each year but nothing has worked!"

"Everything? It could just be a physical condition that the memory erasure helps with. I'm sure if you gave her to a medical professional they could help you, they could help her."

"And have some stranger poking around in her head, sticking her body full of needles and attaching her to some lifeless machine? I don't think so," Kaori replied heatedly.

"There are hundreds of medical profess-"

"I said no! I will never risk Index's life for something that might work over something I know for certain will."

"Alright," Touma said calmly. "I can understand preferring the devil you know. But if that's the life you chose for her then it is your job to make sure it's a happy one. It's your job to make sure that when she wakes up, not knowing a thing, then she at least knows she is in safe hands with people who will care for her."

"What you have isn't just some burden, it's a gift. Your gift is to be able to remember and treasure what she can't and it's your responsibility to do it for her sake. It is your duty to make sure that every life she lives is a happy one that she can enjoy and cherish for however long she has it."

"But you have failed your duty. You let the darkness take you and you succumbed. If it was too much of a burden you should have given it to someone else. Someone who wouldn't let their own pain get the better of them and force them to chase an innocent little girl cross-country, alone and beset on all sides by unseen enemies, fearing for life and limb."

"If she was such a precious friend you should have beared the pain and heartache for her sake rather than force her to go through what she has, to inflict your pain and misery onto her because _you_ couldn't handle it. That is your duty as her friend. And Kanzaki. You have failed your friend. You are relieved of your duty."

"Shut. UP!" Kaori screamed as she flew into a rage, at the same time flying at Touma, hands in front of her, intent on wringing the little upstart's neck.

"If you think you can just give up on her, and still call yourself her friend, I'LL DESTROY THAT ILLUSION OF YOURS!" Touma cried as he spun the nodachi in his hand and into a reverse grip, the silver streak following the blade not entirely caused by the speed at which he spun it.

Kaori was flying towards him so quickly that to anyone else she may as well have just been a blur. But Touma knew better.

She was moving fast but she was angry, not thinking clearly. If she was, she would have known that she was leaving herself wide open to an attack and Touma could see that clear as day. He thrust the hilt of the nodachi forward so quickly that the silver streak behind it actually _was_ just an after image and at the end of his thrust Kaori stopped dead in her tracks.

Kaori barely even had time to register what had happened before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she slumped over the hilt of her own sword which had just been jabbed right into her solar plexus robbing her lungs of oxygen and her mind of consciousness.

"I'm sorry Kanzaki. You will not be seeing Index again." This entire fight had just been Touma trying to stall for time so that Index could escape to the Anglican Church but now that he knew the Church was the culprit behind her pursuit he knew that he had to keep her away from them. To do that he would have to quickly catch up and to do _that_ he would have to deal with Stiyl and his pet.

Which was once again on the offensive now that it had realised the respite had ended.

However, this would not play out as it had last time. Now Touma had resolve steeling his limbs, stronger than any blade Kaori could wield and desire burning in heart, hotter than any fire Stiyl could conjure.

Least of all this flaming monstrosity.

It roared its challenge as it charged and Touma reciprocated, silently getting ready to meet its charge head on.

When Innocentius was a few meters away, Touma leaped at it, silver streaking behind him and his blade as he thrust the nodachi right into it chest. After that he placed his feet against it, Semblance protecting him from the 3000 degree flames, and leaped upwards, taking the nodachi with him and pushing Innocentius downwards until it was flat against the street. When Touma was at the peak of his jump he started spinning and spinning and spinning as he came down.

As he spun, silver once again streaked behind his blade as he channelled Aura into it and by the time he had reached Innocentius he was spinning so fast he punched right through Innocentius and into the street beneath it.

Innocentius promptly screamed in pain and Touma walked away from it, a strange feeling niggling at the back of his mind which he quickly stowed away.

After finishing with the pet, he decided it was time to deal with the master and started looking around for him.

However Touma couldn't see him anywhere so he turned back to Kaori, pulling some duct tape out from another one of his numerous pockets, in order to tape her wrist, thumbs and ankles together. He was a few steps away when that niggling feeling came back.

 _What was it?_

 _'Wait. Why has Innocentius stopped screaming? In fact why was he screaming to begin with?'_

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," came a voice from somewhere behind him.

* * *

 _'Dammit! I got cocky,'_ Touma thought to himself.

In the midst of his adrenaline rush and the high of defeating two of the most physically capable combatants in this fight, he hadn't realised that Innocentius shouldn't have been able to feel pain so it shouldn't have made sense that pain would force it to scream.

It wasn't a cry of pain. It was a cry for help.

 _"Fukoda."_

"I have your friend here. You don't want to do anything rash."

 _'Index? What is she doing here? I told her to run,'_ Touma wanted to say. Instead he simply asked, "She's your friend too, isn't she?" As he asked this he turned around and what he saw before him was heartbreaking.

Index's eyes were puffy and red, trails of tears running down her cheeks. Stiyl, on the other hand, was the exact opposite, calm and composed. Considering what had just been revealed by Kaori this was heartbreaking in its own way, what with how he was holding Index at card point with smoke curling off its edges.

"So Kanzaki spilled the beans, huh? Why am I not surprised?" He asked with a put upon sigh. "She always did have a soft spot for you," he said to Index.

"You two… You really knew me. From before…" Index was crying as she her confronted new-old friend.

"Yes, we did."

"We were… We were close."

"Yes, we were."

"You… You chased me all over Japan."

"Yeah. Yeah, we did."

"You… You made me think I was all alone, being hunted by people who would do whatever it took to get the grimoires."

"..."

"... I was so scared."

"... I'm sorry. We never wanted to hur-GYAH!" Index apparently didn't think much of Stiyl's apology, not if that monstrous bite was anything to go by. After biting Stiyl Index quickly dashed behind Touma and Touma, immediately recognising the opportunity, drew another shuriken from within his jacket, this one blunted with silicone caulk lining its edges, and after lining up the shot he let it fly.

Unfortunately Stiyl still had enough presence of mind to lift up one arm and block it, causing it to bruise but not knock him out.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Touma, Stiyl had used the opportunity to use his other hand to reach into his own robes and pull out a stack of rune cards.

You see, when Stiyl noticed that something was going wrong with Innocentius he had gone to investigate. The exertion of keeping Innocentius corporeal had slowed his search somewhat but he eventually found the cause of Innocentius' troubles. Index had stayed behind and used her ability to track mana to take down his rune cards.

After finding her, he snuck up behind her, wrapped a hand around her petite wrist and took the rune cards back. After a quick inspection he saw that the adhesive was still there and thus could easily be reapplied.

Then he heard Innocentius' scream and went back to investigate. There he saw that the little brat had somehow beaten both Kaori and Innocentius and that brought them to where they are now.

As the shuriken Touma had thrown fell to the ground it was quickly accompanied by the Stiyls rune cards.

"NOW INNOCENTIUS!"

 _*ROOAARR*_

And with that Innocentius tore itself free from the ground, the nodachi still sticking out of its chest and before Touma could so much as raise his arms in defence, Innocentius had him flying across the street and through a building on the opposite side.

"Touma!" Cried Index, running to the building that Touma had just been flung through.

"Good riddance," muttered Stiyl, motioning for Innocentius to stop Index. It did this by reaching above and over her, planting its crucifix upside down and into the ground in front of her, causing her to fall backwards onto her behind.

"Come on Index, I promise I won't hurt you," Stiyl said, walking up to her and leaning down to help her up.

"Let go of me!" She cried, trying to shake him off and dash past the other side of the crucifix. However she couldn't shake his grip and just ended up being dragged out from underneath Innocentius.

"She said, _'let go'_."

 _"What?"_ Spinning around, Stiyl was promptly treated to six-and-a-quarter inches of hardened hickory wood tipped with a solid steel spike right to his shoulder. "Gah!" He cried out in pain as he dropped to his knees, pressing a hand against his wound.

When his head cleared enough for him to look up he noticed that Innocentius was gone and Touma was staggering out of the hole he had left in the wall, one hand grasping a crossbow/pistol while the other was cradling his ribs.

The crossbow he was holding, like the bolt he had fired with it, was also made out of hardened hickory, with steel limbs set in a reverse-draw formation and powerful springs to prop it open. The reverse-draw mechanism made the crossbow easier to holster when drawn and the safety clamp insured that the bolt was staying where it was until the trigger was pulled.

It also had a slightly hollow barrel to allow for a winch that would reel the steel arms in allowing for easier reloading.

Also in the barrel was an Active Noise Cancellation chip, or ANC chip for short. It was an electronic device that cancelled noise by emitting the same sound at an opposite phase. Most automotive industries used them in vehicles and he himself had one in his motorcycle but they were also good for cancelling the noise his crossbow made when firing.

All of this was combined with a stylish silver and blue paintjob and voila! A powerful, silent, compact crossbow with a 180 pound draw weight and a range of up to about 30 meters.

More than enough to cover the distance between Stiyl and Touma.

"I gotta give you that one. You sure did a number on me. Ow…" Touma gritted out as he half-walked, half-limped towards Stiyl. As Stiyl made to get up Touma stopped him. "Don't bother. I've already reloaded and I'd _hate_ to have to shoot you again."

Seeing that he was telling the truth, having reloaded during his trek, Stiyl immediately backed down.

"Good. Now hold still." Touma walked up to Stiyl until he was right beside him and clubbed him over the head with his crossbow. Both boys gave a brief grunt of pain before Stiyl slumped to the ground. "Gotta stop doing that…" Touma muttered, regretting the fact that he hadn't just grabbed his Power-Up and knocked him out with its 12,000,000 volts of electricity.

After that he made his way to Index and while he did so he took a quick glance at his Scroll and saw that he was a quarter-to empty.

"Touma… Are you okay?" She asked.

"Just peachy," Touma said, stowing his Scroll away and throwing Index a weak smile.

Index, not being blind and all, immediately noticed that Touma was lying. "No you're not! We have to get you to a hospital!"

"No," Touma said, slowly shaking his head. "No hospitals. Besides, we still have to get you somewhere safe." At this Index stalled.

"But… but where is that? The Church are the ones behind all this and… Touma look out!" This warning once again jump started Touma's adrenaline, allowing him to ignore his injuries and spinning around faster than you could say _'what now?'_

* * *

The rush of footsteps.

The rasp of steel on leather.

The glint of polished metal shining in the light.

The flash of crimson as blood splattered across the street.

The scream of panic as two bodies fell and didn't get back up.

* * *

 **A/N** : _Well, wouldja' look at that? Two chapters in as many days. How about that?  
Also, I made a few more revisions in my previous chapters, things you might not notice unless I pointed them out so I'll just tell you that they're there and leave it to you to figure out what they actually are ;P. And you might want to as it's some pretty serious foreshadowing in regards to the future of this story.  
Guest Reviewer #2: Once again, thanks for the spell check. As for the mistake you made in your last comment, it was "when did Index (finds out)". It should be "(find out)". As for your most recent review you made another mistake. : "so (they headed) through the eastern gate". It was "(they'll head)". Isn't this great? It's like a 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' thing isn't it?_

 ** _Explanations:  
Touma's Aura: _**_Why does he have Aura when it seems so supernatural? Read and find out True Believers!  
 **Aura Terminology:** It's pretty simple; Half-past green means he's halfway through the green zone, quarter-to yellow means he's got a quarter of the green zone left until he reaches the yellow and so on and so forth.  
 **Stiyl's Durability:** I know that in canon Stiyl took one hit and was pretty much down for the count, so why did Touma 2.0's back-hand baton swing not knock him out immediately? Stiyl's physical weakness in that scene has been explained as Innocentius needing a lot of juice to keep going so I just ran with that.  
 **Imagine Breaker:** For those of you who were wondering how Touma's Imagine Breaker was extended to that kitchen knife, you've now got your answer. Whatever Touma channels his Aura through, Imagine Breaker follows. And in the words of Pyrrha (Oum bless her soul) "All of our tools and equipment are conduits for Aura" **.** But you knew that if you got the hint I dropped in **The Human Library**. Well, if you didn't figure it out before you know now. Also, Touma seems to be under the impression that Imagine Breaker is his Semblance rather than some cosmic entity with its own consciousness that's decided to take up residence inside of him. Just thought I'd point that out.  
 **Touma 2.0:** I know that it might _seem _like Touma is overpowered but rest assured that he won't be a Gary Stu. He will be more prepared for, and more capable in, fights but his enemies won't just think he's some helpless kid and he's not in for an easy time.  
 **Defeating Kanzaki:** Touma beat one of the 20 Saints in the world? OP AF! But seriously, I made it pretty clear that he didn't win that one on skill or strength but through wit and on-the-fly strategizing. Kanzaki was mad and not thinking clearly. I mean, wouldn't you if some random kid came up and told you that, after spending years of watching your friend suffer and suffering yourself because of it, that it was pretty much your fault for not doing a good enough job?  
 **Index's Reaction:** Honestly, I'm not entirely sure if I captured her character very well in this scene. But in my defence I'm not too sure how _ anyone _would react to finding out that their friends are actually the people that have seemingly been trying to abduct and possibly **torture** them for information, so I tried to capture distress and confusion but again, I'm not sure how well I did that. Feel free to tell me what I could have done better. And no, that is _ not _an excuse to drop flames, so please don't._


	6. The List of Prohibited Books

**_The List of Prohibited Books_**

* * *

 **July 21st**

* * *

"So where is Saten today? Mikoto asked Kazari Uiharu.

"I don't know," Kazari answered. "I haven't seen her since yesterday."

"Hm," Mikoto hmmed. "That's we- whoa," said Mikoto eyes widening at the sight before her. "What happened here?"

"I don't know, Onee-sama," Kuroko replied. "But I can find out," she said, slipping on her Judgement armband and walking towards an Anti-Skill officer.

"It looks like a disaster passed through here," said Mikoto. "Didn't the cameras catch anything?" She asked addressing Kazari.

"I don't think so," she replied. "If they had they would have sent out the footage already but I didn't even get an alert about this."

Kuroko returned a moment later and relayed what she had been told.

"Anti-Skill don't know what happened here either," she told the duo. "Apparently someone with the power to manipulate minds drove everyone into leaving and all of the cameras were shut down."

"Who could have done something like that?" Asked Mikoto.

"And why would they do it?" Continued Kazari.

"We're not sure yet but we think it was just a group of delinquents abusing their powers," said Kuroko.

"Abusing their powers, huh?" Mikoto muttered. "Well, they sure did a number on this place," she said, taking in the no less than six craters dotted around the street, accompanied by four more in the surrounding buildings, two of which being actual holes that went straight through the walls.

"Yeah, but we didn't find any blood samples so we don't think anyone was hurt during the event," Kuroko assured.

"Well that's a relief," Said Kazari, ever the optimist.

* * *

 **The Previous Night**

* * *

"TOUMA!" Index shrieked, running over to where he had been sent flying. Kneeling beside him, blood staining her habit from where it had begun to pool, she looked over his injuries.

There was a giant cut going from his left hip to his right shoulder and it was bleeding profusely. Index tore off Toumas helmet non-too-gently and proceeded to slap him even less so.

Seeing that he was still unconscious, Index wasn't entirely sure what to do next but inspiration hit her when she heard a ringing sound coming from Touma's ear.

A strange little device was poking out of his ear and Index pulled it out to get a better look at it. Doing this, she accidentally pressed a button on the side that accepted the incoming call and a tinny voice started coming out of its speaker.

 _"Hey, Kami-yan, I forgot to mention, since you decided to skip out on the first day of remedials, Komoe-sensei decided to double your holiday homework so-"_

"Hello? Is someone there? Please, I need your help!" Index yelled into the little device.

 _"Huh? Who is this?"_

"I can't hear you, please speak up!"

 _"*sigh* PUT. THE. SPEA. KER. TO. YOUR. EAR."_ Hearing what was being said, Index promptly stuck the little rubbery part, that noise was coming out of, into her ear. "Can you hear me now?"

"Yes! Now, please help me!" Index said, still yelling loud enough to wake the dead.

 _"Sheesh, yeah, okay, I get it. So I take it you're that girl Kami-yan was showing around today?"_

"Yes, that's right."

 _"And Kami-yan's managed to get himself into another mess, right?"_

"He's dying!"

 _"Does he have his motorcycle?"_

"Yes, it's right over there."

 _"Go to it and check under the seat. Kami-yan usually keeps a first-aid kit in there."_ Complying with the voice, Index ran over and saw that he was right. Snatching up the little bag, she hurried back to Touma's unmoving body and got to work patching him up.

When she was done she said to the voice, "Okay, he's bandaged up, now what do I do? Call an ambulance?"

 _"Not yet. Kami-yan hates hospitals. Which is ironic considering how much time spends in them,"_ the voice said, trailing off a little bit.

"Please focus," Index said pleadingly.

 _"Right, right,"_ the voice said getting back on track _. "Are all of his limbs still attached?"_

"Y- yes...," Index said slowly, not quite sure if she heard right.

 _"Are any of them bending in a way they shouldn't be?"_

"No."

 _"Are there any bones sticking out?"_

"No."

 _"Have you stopped the bleeding?"_

"Yes."

 _"Then you're all set. Now you just need to get him somewhere comfortable. Where-"_

"You can't be serious! Touma's dying! How can you be so calm?"

 _"Relax lady,"_ the voice said soothingly. _"You know all those things I asked you a moment ago?"_ A brief murmur of assent from Index, and the voice continued. _"Well that was the **bare minimum** of what it takes to get Kami-yan into a hospital. Anything less and he'll just get mad at you for taking him there and costing him money."_

"Huh?" Index asked, thoroughly confused.

 _"Yeah, Kami-yan's an odd one but there's two ways about it. He's a survivor, he'll tough it out."_

"If- if you're sure…" Index said.

 _"Positive. Now, where did you say you were again?"_

"We're right next to the eastern gate."

 _"Eastern gate, huh? Kami-yan trying to sneak out again? On second thought don't answer that. Three left turns from the gate, there should be a little side street, do you see it?"_

"Uh-huh," Index answered with a nod he couldn't see.

 _"Follow that street for a couple hundred meters or so and you'll come across a place called_ 'The Too True Love Hotel' _. The people there know Kami-yan, they'll let you in."_

"The Too True Love Hotel," Index repeated. "Got it. But how will I get him there?"

 _"You said he has his motorcycle right? You can use that."_

"Right," Index said, dragging Touma to his motorcycle by his armpits. While she was struggling to get it back on its wheels a voice spoke up. But it was not the helpful voice from the strange little device. It was the voice of the lady that did this to Touma.

 _"Index,"_ she said, still lying on her side. "Please. Wait."

"What do you want?" Index said, eyes narrowing and suspicion, if not outright hostility, dripping from her voice.

"You… You know, don't you? How we-"

"Used to be close?" Index said, cutting her off. "Yeah. I heard you mention it."

"Then, please," Kaori said. "Please come with us. We don't want to hurt you. We want to _help_ you," Kaori implored.

"But then, who will help Touma?"

"Stiyl is unconscious," she said. "The people clearing field will fail any minute. Someone else can help him. Right now, you're all that concerns me."

Index was ashamed to admit that she had to think about it. She thought that, if she was telling the truth, now could be her only chance of getting out of Academy City. And it wasn't the thought that Touma needed her help that kept her from leaving. It was the uncertainty of what she would do after she left.

Then she realised that _it didn't matter_. She couldn't just leave this stupid, idiotic, _brave, selfless_ boy lying alone and unconscious in the middle of the streets at the dead of night. Not after all he had done for her.

"No. Touma needs my help and after all he's done for me I can't repay him by just leaving him here," she said, a new determination lacing her voice as she resumed struggling to get the motorcycle back on its wheels.

* * *

Meanwhile, a couple of kilometres away, a certain blue haired boy just sighed to himself as he shook his head and smiled. _'*sigh* The Kami-yan disease strikes again. How_ do _you keep doing it Kami-yan?'_ Knowing that Kami-yan was in safe hands he hung up his phone and returned to his morally questionable internet browsing.

* * *

"He really means that much to you?" Asked Kaori.

Index looked at the unconscious boy, unconscious because of the injuries he sustained for her sake, and she knew. "More than you could ever know," she said smiling fondly, mirroring what Kaori said about her only a few minutes ago.

"I see…" Kaori said, making her choice. With a heave of effort she pushed herself to her feet and walked over to Index.

"What are you doing?" Index asked, tensing her legs, ready to run.

"What I said I would," Kaori replied, clutching a hand to her stomach. "I'm helping you." With that she lifted the motorcycle up to its wheels, propped it up with the kickstand and placed Touma onto the seat. All with one hand. The other was staunching the blood flowing from her stomach.

"*gasp* you're bleeding," Index observed, concerned.

"Heh, it is sweet of you to worry but don't," Kaori told her. "I'm sure you've realised it by now but I am a saint. We're made of sterner stuff than regular humans. That boys lucky shot won't be enough to kill me."

"If you're sure," Index said.

"I'm sure," Kaori assured her. "Now, where are we taking him?" She asked, putting one hand on the handle across from her on the motorcycle in order to keep it steady and keeping her other hand on her stomach.

"There's a hotel a little ways down that way," index said, pointing to where the helpful voice indicated earlier. "The people there know Touma so they'll help him."

"Understood." Kicking up the kickstand Kaori started wheeling the motorcycle to the aforementioned hotel and Index ran back to get Touma's helmet.

And as they silently made their way to the hotel, a troop of cleaning robots, unbeknownst to them, started cleaning up the more _telling_ evidence that they had left behind.

* * *

 **July 21st**

* * *

"What's the current situation?" Stiyl asked.

"Index is eating in her room and the boy is still comatose," Kaori replied, still looking through the binoculars.

"I meant _our_ situation," Stiyl said. "Are we still going after Index or what?"

"She has found a partner," Kaori stated matter-of-factly. "You know what that means." Index would stick by her partner's side until they accomplished what no one else had or until her memories were erased. Hopefully the former but Kaori wouldn't get her hopes up.

"*sigh* at this rate, he's not going to wake up in time to so much as comfort her let alone help her."

"He has done what he can and should he wake up before her time I am sure he will continue do so."

"Tch. I guess there's no arguing with that," Stiyl conceded, putting a cigarette between his teeth and lighting it. "After all, it's not every day some high school student takes down both a saint _and_ Innocentius."

"No, it is not," Kaori said, finally putting away the binoculars and looking at Stiyl. "But if you think that boy is just 'some high school student' you are sorely mistaken."

"I agree with you on that," Stiyl acknowledged. "But that just begs the question. Who, or what, is he? We've checked every source we have and nothing indicates that he's anything other than ordinary student."

"I suppose that's just another mystery to chalk up to 'One who Purifies God and Slays Demons'," Kaori replied, once again bringing the binoculars up to her eyes.

* * *

 **July 23rd**

* * *

 ***brriing**brriing***

"Ugh," Touma groaned as the sound of his alarm hit him like a freight train. "What time is it?" He asked aloud, bringing his arm up to rub the sleep out of his eyes. After doing that he tried to raise his arms to stretch the kinks out of them but realised that there was something wrong with that plan.

There was something holding down his left arm.

 _'Welp. I guess I'm not the checking that any_ time _soon, heh heh. Godammit Yang,'_

Getting over the disappointment he felt in himself, he quickly checked to see just _what_ was pinning his arm to the bed and saw-

 _'A nun!'_

Panicking slightly, it wasn't long before Touma recalled the events of the night before and gently tried to lift Index off of his arm without waking her.

 _"Mmm,"_ Index murmured through the flannel collar she was chewing on.

 _'Wait. Flannel collar?'_

Touma quickly realised that the flannel collar she was chewing on was _his_ collar. Except there was one problem.

He didn't _own_ flannel pyjamas.

 _"Fukoda. I'm here again,"_ he muttered under his breath.

 _"Hmm?_ Touma?" Index bleared sleepily.

"Oh, sorry Index. Did I wake you?"

 _"Touma._ You're awake!" Index cheered, wrapping Touma in a hug that damn near crushed his already injured bones.

"Agh! Yeah, I am but I won't be for much longer if you keep that up," he said gently prying Index off of him.

"Sorry," Index said, not sounding particularly sorry at all. "It's just that, after two days of sleeping, I didn't know if you'd be waking up today."

"Oh ye of lit- Wait. Did you say _two_ _days?"_

"Mm-hm," Index nodded.

"Gah! What the hell!?" Touma suddenly exclaimed, leaping out of bed and looking for some clothes to throw on. "Those damn magicians, they're ruining my attendance. I'll have to attend more remedials because of this!"

"Hey, Touma? What do you mean, remedials?"

"Huh? Oh, never mind that, we still have to get you someplace safe." Touma's search for an appropriate outfit suddenly stopped. "Have you thought of where that could be yet?"

"…"

"Oh. Well, don't worry about it," Touma said. "The problem is the fact that something in your brain causes you to collapse on the verge of death once every year, right?"

"So they say."

"Well, now that I know what's wrong, I think I have a solution."

"Oh? And what's that?" Index asked inquisitively.

"I have… a _friend_. She might be able to help. She's a professional. I'll call her after breakfast."

* * *

After breakfast, during which Index filled Touma in on what happened after he blacked out, Touma walked out to the front of the hotel to make his call.

"Hey Kyarakuta," Touma called, greeting the desk manager as he walked past.

"Oh? The conquering hero returns from yet another conquest?" Kyarakuta taunted back.

"If I were the 'conquering hero', would I have shown up beaten, bloody and bruised?" Touma asked rhetorically.

"That's not really what I meant."

"Whatever," Touma said, rolling his eyes. "I told Index to help herself to your kitchen by the way. I'll pay you back later."

"Sure thing. By the way, you also have to pay me back for the past two days."

"No problem." After that Touma went out to the front of the hotel and made his call.

 ***Riiing***

 _"Touma! How are you? Where have you been? Are you doing well?"_

"Alive, around and no. Listen, can I ask you for a favour?"

 _"Of course, but you know what the cost for one of those is."_

"Yeah, I know. Meet me in the Too True Love Hotel in District 6, I'll explain there. And bring protection."

 _"Okay. Is that all?"_

"Should be," Touma said. "Actually one more thing. Thank you. I can always count on you."

 _"Of course. I will always be here to help you, My Prince."_

* * *

"Hey Kyarakuta, Misaki will be dropping by soon, can you give her a key to my room?"

"Two girls at the same time? It's not even afternoon yet," Kyarakuta replied, fulfilling his favourite pastime of ribbing Touma about his stream of girls.

"Har Har. Can you please just do it?"

"Maybe if you share with me your secrets."

"Aren't you married?" Touma asked, quirking an eyebrow and skirting the subject.

"Heh heh heh," Kyarakuta nervously chuckled, tugging on his collar and looking away. "It's just for research purposes. You know. For science."

"Riiight," Touma drawled. "Just give her the key, would you?"

"Sure, sure." And with that Touma walked up the stairs to his room and opened the door. Seeing Index scooping ice-cream into her mouth, Touma called out to her.

"Bit early for ice-cream isn't it?"

"It's never too early for something so delicious," Index said sagely, through a mouthful of ice-cream.

"Just be sure to brush your teeth afterwards," Touma lectured.

"Mm-kay." Knowing that he would likely have to force her to do it later and resolving to do so, Touma went to the bed and meditated.

Every Hunters Aura was capable of involuntarily accelerating their healing factor and minor wounds disappeared almost instantaneously. Greater wounds took a little longer but even then they would heal faster thanks to Aura.

A practiced Hunter could focus their Aura into further accelerating Aura's healing capability through concentration and meditation. Touma's Aura, on the other hand, was capable of healing such severe wounds all on its own.

And when he meditated that healing accelerated exponentially, to the point that broken bones reset and severed veins and arteries re-joined. Unfortunately it still took time, time Touma didn't generally have in the middle of a fight.

But In the calm that comes afterwards, Touma could spend an hour or so meditating and he could walk away in almost tip-top shape. However, it still took some Aura so Touma looked at his Scroll to measure how much Aura he would be willing to expend versus how much he would actually need to.

Seeing that he was at yellow he figured he had some Aura he was willing to use to get the ache out of his ribs, spine and hips, the areas he had been most injured during his fight with Stiyl and Kaori.

Closing his eyes and concentrating, Touma allowed his Aura to flow through his body focusing mostly in his torso and immediately he felt the pain and soreness fade away. He also felt _it_ somewhere inside, the manifestation of his soul that strangely felt like a separate entity yet felt as familiar to him as his arms or legs.

His Semblance.

Touma believed _it_ to be the reason his Aura was better at healing his injuries than most others' but it wasn't exactly like he could Wikipedia that shit. All he had was a handful of theories and estimated guesses.

But Touma tried not to dwell on that, instead turning, once again, to mending his body in preparation for the inevitable fight that he knew was bound to come. It was why he had told Misaki to bring protection after all.

And speaking of Misaki, it sounded like she was on her way up. Those footsteps were too light to be Kyarakutas and he didn't think anyone else would be using a hotel like this, this early in the day.

So, reluctantly, Touma opened his eyes and stretched his muscles before opening the door just as a gloved hand reached for the doorknob on the other side.

"Oh, Touma! You scared me," said Misaki, putting the aforementioned gloved hand to her considerably large chest. "My heart is racing," she continued before smirking slyly, a mischievous twinkle in her already starry eyes. "Would you like to feel it?"

"Are you sure it wasn't just the three flights of stairs you had to walk up?"

" _Touma_ ," Misaki whined. "My athletic ability isn't _that_ low."

"Right, right, of course. My apologies princess," Touma said jokingly, bowing at the waist.

"I will forgive you this once My Prince, but in return you must treat me to a parfait."

"Your wish is my command," Touma said, rising from his bow. "But before that, my request?"

"Of course. Like you instructed I brought protection," Misaki said, reaching into her handbag. "However, I couldn't tell which kind you meant so I brought some bodyguards as well as some con-"

" _Okay!_ That's great! There is no need to finish that sentence!" Touma said, grasping her shoulders and dragging her out of the doorway and into the hallway, slamming the door shut behind him to ensure Index was out of sight lest she see Misaki pull out one of the two versions of protection she had brought along.

And something told him she wasn't carrying bodyguards in her handbag.

"Hmm? Okay," Misaki said, pulling her hand out of her handbag, thankfully without any protection greater than the elbow-length, silk gloves she always wore. "So why did you call me here?"

"I met a girl a couple of days ago-"

" _Another_ girl?" Misaki complained, pouting.

"Yeah, why?" Touma said, picking up on the displeasure in her voice but not quite understanding why it was there.

"Never mind," Misaki sighed. "So what does she need?"

"She's having brain problems," Touma explained. "I think that she has some sort of physical defect that causes her to enter a coma every year. If the coma goes untreated she would die but her treatment causes her memories to be erased."

"I've never heard of anything like that," Misaki said, putting a finger to her chin.

"Neither have I. That's why I want you to give her a brain scan, but purely _physical_. I don't want you entering her thoughts or memories, okay?"

"Oh? Do you have something to hide?" Misaki said, raising an eyebrow.

"No, but she does and I want you to respect that, are we clear?" Receiving a nod as confirmation Touma turned back to the door and opened. "Good. Now let's get started."

"Index?" Touma called out.

"Hmm? What is it, Touma?" Index had apparently finished eating her ice-cream and was now staring intently at the TV, which was playing Magical Powered Kanamin.

"This is my friend Shokuhou Misaki," Touma said. "She's the one I was talking about earlier, remember? The one who can help you." Index looked Misaki up and down, trying to get a read on her.

"And how do you figure that?" She asked.

"She's a professional, just leave it to her, okay?"

"Okay." With that Misaki approached Index and crouched down to be eye-level with her.

"Now, Index was it?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Okay. I want you to close your eyes and empty your mind. Can you do that?"

"Sure." Index proceeded to comply with the blonde girl.

"Good." Seeing that her eyes were indeed closed, Misaki reached into her handbag and pulled out a remote control. Pointing it at Index's head she pressed a button on it and the results of her scan came back. "Okay, you can open your eyes now."

"That's it?"

"That's it. Now, I need to talk to Touma about this, so just keep watching TV, okay?"

"Alright then." With that Index did as she was told and Misaki walked over to Touma, who had stayed standing by the door during the whole exchange.

"So, how'd it go?" he asked.

"Perfectly," she answered succinctly.

"Perfectly how?"

"Perfectly as in there's nothing wrong with her," she elaborated.

"How can that be? We were told-"

 ***riiing**riiing***

Cut off by the ringtone Touma pressed the side of his earpiece to accept the call. "Sorry Misaki, one second," he said, turning away.

"Yes, who-"

 ***BRRAAKKA**BRRAAKKA***

 _"Kamijou! Please,_ ***BRRAAKKA**BRRAAKKA*,** _we need your help!"_

"Huh? McGuffin? What is it? ***BRRAAKKA**BRRAAKKA*** Where are you? What do you need?"

 ***BRRAAKKA**BRRAAKKA***

 _"Esper! Powerful! Nuclear facility! HELP!"_ And on that cheerful note the call ended leaving Touma in a state of suspense.

"Well, shit. That sounds important. Sorry Misaki, I have to go, someone needs my help."

"It's not another girl is it?" Misaki asked, putting her hands on her hips and raising a brow at him.

"Funny you should ask. It's not."

"Then you have my blessing."

"Thanks, I guess," Touma said, snatching up his helmet and sprinting out of his room and down the stairs.

"Kamijou? What's-"

"Sorry Kyarakuta, no time, gotta go." With that Touma rushed out of the front doors and onto his motorcycle which had been parked at the front of the hotel. After pulling on his helmet he brought his arm up to look at his Scroll.

 _'Just less than quarter-past yellow.'_ His meditation had apparently taken almost quarter out of the yellow zone. Apparently he had been more injured than he'd thought and required more healing than he would have liked. It meant he would be charging headfirst with less Aura than he would prefer but hopefully it would be enough.

Stowing his scroll, Touma put his hand on the handlebar and gunned the engine, tearing off down the street to help Anti-Skill.

* * *

 _Fave, follow, review_


	7. The AIM Burst

**_The AIM Burst_**

* * *

 **July 23** **rd**

* * *

Ruiko Saten was staring at her hands in awe of what lay within them.

Or rather, what was flying in circles above them. A handful of small leaves had been caught in a breeze that _she_ had created. She, a level 0, was controlling the ever-shifting wind.

True, it was nothing compared to what Mikoto or Kuroko could do but it was _something_. And it was _hers._ Being so enamoured by the leaves, Ruiko didn't even notice when someone called her name.

However, she did notice when someone cried out Akemi's name with a panic in their voice.

" _Akemi!"_ Cried Mako and Muu as they rushed over to their collapsed friend. "What's wrong, what happened?" Asked Mako. Saten looked over but didn't rush over to help. She knew.

She didn't know how or why but she knew. It was because they had taken the Level Upper. It had done this and now they were next. Would they ever wake up? Would they stay comatose forever? She didn't know but she knew she had to do something before it happened to her.

But first things first. "Call an ambulance," she told her two friends. "We have to get her to a hospital." Muu was the first to respond and immediately complied.

It didn't take long for the ambulance to arrive and Ruiko headed home. As soon as she got there she pulled out her phone and dialed the first person who came to her mind.

 ***rriinngg**rrii-***

 _"Saten, I'm so glad you called. I haven't heard from you in a while and-"_

"Uiharu…"

* * *

"It'll be okay, I'm sure everything will work out in the end," Dr. Kiyama offered the downtrodden girl before walking out of her office.

Kazari did not respond and instead silently wiped away her tears as the door clicked shut. Then, seeking a distraction, she started looking around the office.

Looking towards a drawer located on her left, Kazari noticed something sticking out. A sheet of paper with the words 'Synaesthesia' printed at the top.

Going over to take a look she pulled the sheet out and skimmed over its contents. Quickly finishing with the first sheet she opened the drawer completely and started leafing through all of the other papers in there. Every single one of them was something on the subject of synaesthesia.

"It's not very polite, going through other people's things."

* * *

 _'McGuffin said he was at a nuclear facility,"_ Touma thought to himself as he weaved in and out of traffic, running through multiple red lights in the process. _'That means he's somewhere in District 10.'_ Knowing his destination, Touma picked up the speed and took an exit that led to an elevated pass that went through all of District 10.

As soon as he was on that pass it was a relatively straight shot from one end to the other. There he could _really_ let loose with CloudStreak. From the sound of things he would have to if he wanted to be of any help to McGuffin.

Taking a quick look around and seeing that Anti-Skill had apparently cleared traffic on the pass, Touma lifted the cover of _The Button_.

However, before he could press it a voice called out to him.

"Long time no see, _Silver Dragon_."

Touma slammed the breaks and skidded to a halt, pulling a quarter-spin and ending up with the side of his motorcycle facing ahead.

Looking up, Touma saw something he was really hoping he wouldn't have to see again.

 _"Kakine,"_ he whispered to himself. The number two, level five was hovering ahead and slightly above him, using six pure white wings that he had created with his ability, _Dark Matter_. "I left that life behind." _'What is he doing here, is he the one behind this?'_ Touma decided that he had to figure that out later, McGuffin was in danger.

Teitoku Kakine gave a pointed look to the motorcycle, jacket and helmet. "Well it appears to have caught up with you."

Touma glared through his helmet and somehow, despite not seeing it, Teitoku could feel the hostility behind it. "I guess I'll just have to run faster then," Touma said revving his engine.

"By all means," Teitoku said, turning his body sideways and extending his arm outwards like a doorman welcoming a visitor into his building. "Be my guest." With that, Touma took his foot off the ground and turned the bike to race forwards once again.

Moving along a few feet, he passed by Teitoku and once he did, he flipped up the cover to _The Button_ again and pressed down on it.

With a mighty ***FFWHOOOSSHH*** CloudStreak lived up to its name once more. Utilizing its highly advanced engine and copious amounts of Dust, CloudStreak was capable of moving at 700 kilometres per hour.

A ride like that was normally pretty difficult to handle, especially on two wheels, but that was why CloudStreak came equipped with four rotary stabilizing thrusters, two at the front and two at the back. These thrusters were capable of keeping the motorcycle upright during sharp turns, slightly increasing forward thrust and even extending jumps by quite a distance, even if it couldn't actually fly.

All of this put together meant that CloudStreak _technically_ wasn't street legal but it wasn't like Touma made a habit of cruising up and down Academy City at over half the speed of sound. Plus, it had numerous safety measures, like a thumb print scanner, a camera at the front to activate the automatic brakes and the fuel limit that kept it from being active for any longer than 15 minutes, or even at all, without express approval from an administrator at a remote location.

With the need for speed in full gear Touma would make it to McGuffin in no time.

Or at least he _would_ if some inconsiderate _bastard_ hadn't planted camouflaged mines _all over the damn bridge!_

"Shit!" Touma cried, swerving left and right in an effort to avoid all of the explosions. It was all for naught, however, as there were simply too many of them.

 ***BOOM***

"Gah!" Touma was launched from his seat as his motorcycle was flipped end over end and, at the speeds he was going, that meant he was sent flying both forwards and straight down into even more mines.

 ***BOOM*** _"Oh-"_

 ***BOOM*** _"Come-"_

 ***BOOM*** _"On! Agh!"_ With all of the explosions, Touma had been launched over the side of the bridge but had somehow managed to grasp its ledge with a single hand before plummeting to the unforgiving ground below.

"Didn't see that one coming, did you?" Kakine taunted. "I had those set up for any other pesky Anti-Skill members that were called in. They were made to insure that their armoured vehicles would be rendered dysfunctional but any normal person still would have been obliterated. So how did you survive?"

Touma didn't answer as he brought up his other hand and pulled himself back over the ledge. As he rolled over the rise he kept himself close to the guardrail in order to keep from triggering any more mines. "I'd love to stay and find out but unfortunately I have some more important matters to attend to."

And with that Teitoku flew off, likely headed towards whatever threat had driven an Anti-Skill member into calling a civilian for help, albeit a civilian he was familiar with.

"Hey! Get back here you little- ***click*** " Touma had risen and tried to chase after Teitoku but at hearing the tell-tale sound of a mine being stepped on he immediately stopped in his tracks.

Looking down, he saw that the active camouflage had been deactivated upon the mines arming. Unfortunately that didn't really help Touma get off safely. So instead, he glanced at his Scroll to see if he could survive a few more blasts. If he could he _might_ be able to make it to CloudStreak and throw it over the side of the bridge and drive along the ground beneath it.

Teitoku had said he'd booby trapped the bridge but he hadn't said anything about the street below.

"Hello!? Is anyone up there? I thought I saw explosions and I thought I'd check and see what it was!"

Or maybe he could use that. One look at his Aura showed that it was almost at a quarter-to red. Not much. Deciding that Plan B was the better option, he tensed his legs and jumped, outpacing the explosion behind him and flipping in the air so that when he landed he hit the ground in a roll.

Springing up from his roll he spun around and looked towards the man who had called out. Seeing that he had guessed right and that the man had come here in a car, he reached into his tattered, bloody and now singed jacket and pulled out a Judgement armband that he had *ahem* _liberated_ from his time in Judgement training.

"Sir, I am from Judgement and I'm afraid I'm going to have to borrow your taxi."

* * *

Today had started normal enough. Dr Kiyama had woken up gotten coffee and gone to her office. Then her day had started going south. That troublesome little girl had gone snooping through her files, forcing her to take her hostage to keep her from telling anyone. Then it turned out that somebody had already figured it out and alerted Anti-Skill and, even worse, that middle-schooler from a few days before, the Railgun.

She had known that she could handle Anti-Skill. She had believed she could even handle the Railgun. She had given up at the sign of the AIM Burst. So where did that leave her upon seeing the number two, level five? _'We're screwed.'_

"Sorry Railgun," he said casually, as if stopping Mikoto's railgun was a daily occurrence for him. "But I'm afraid I have need of our large friend here. Or rather, what's in it." With that he carefully carved a hole out of the AIM Burst and out of it came the creature's core.

"Wha- What's going on? Who are you?" Mikoto asked.

"Ah. Forgive me, I forgot to introduce myself," he said gentlemanly. "My name is Kakine Teitoku, otherwise known as _Dark Matter."_

"You- You're the number two," Mikoto said, realization dawning on her features.

"That's right," Teitoku told her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have places to be and number ones to kill."

"What?" Mikoto asked. "What did you say? What are you planning to do with that?"

"Don't worry," he assured her. "It's all for a good cause. In fact you should be thanking me. With this your sisters' nightmare will be over."

"My sisters? I don't have sisters." Teitoku only smiled, with teeth that could blind a man.

"Poor ignorant, naïve Railgun. You have no idea do you? Well like I said; don't worry, it's all for a good cause."

"I don't think so, pal," Mikoto said in that voice that said _'don't fuck with me or else.'_ "You're going to give me that core, then you're going to elaborate on just what you told me." During her tirade, Mikoto started sparking up threateningly. "Who's this guy you're going to kill, what do you mean my sisters? Answer me!" She said, throwing a lightning bolt at Teitoku.

"Oh please," Teitoku scoffed waving his hand and summoning his signature dark matter to absorb and disperse the electricity. "If you're done with that little tantrum, I'll be on my way." With that his wings popped out of his back and he took to the air.

"Not so fast!" Mikoto cried, pulling out an arcade coin to unleash her own signature move. "You're not going anywhere!" She brought up her hand and as she prepared to fire off her railgun Teitoku spun in the air sighed at her.

"I didn't want to fight you Railgun but if I must." Looking like for all the world like he really didn't want to do this, Teitoku waved his hand and an explosion went off right in front of Mikoto.

"Agh!" She cried, flying backwards.

"Misaka!" Dr Kiyama exclaimed rushing towards her as fast as she could in her condition.

"Ugh…" She groaned. "I'm- I'm alright. My EM field protected me from the worst of it."

"Good," Dr Kiyama said. "You still have to destroy that- Hey, do you hear that?" Mikoto went quiet as she strained her ears.

"Yeah, it sounds like a-"

"Ugh!" Dr Kiyama and Mikoto turned to the source of the loud groan and saw Teitoku on the ground, wingless and pulling something out of his bicep.

Mikoto tilted her head and squinted. "Is that a-"

"CAR!?" Teitoku finished for her.

 ** _*CRASH*_**

* * *

Today had started out normally enough. Perhaps he should be worried about that but he could hardly blame himself for it. He woke up with a pretty girl lying next to him in a hotel after a hard day of getting his ass kicked.

Yeah he should probably be worried.

He had told himself that he was leaving that life behind and yet, like Teitoku said, it had caught up to him. Now he was racing down a grassy field towards the second most powerful esper in Academy City.

 _'Fukoda.'_

After shooting Teitoku with an Aura infused arrow but before hitting him with a 100 something km/h car, he leaped out of the car in a textbook dive and rolled to bleed off his momentum. Thank God he was driving on grass.

 ** _*CRASH*_**

Touma looked up to get a good look at his handiwork and was about to metaphorically pat himself on the back until-

"That hurt."

"Oh shit." Touma scrambled out of the way as the hood of the car was torn from its body and thrown at Touma like a very painful looking Frisbee.

"I knew I should have killed you when I had the chance," Teitoku growled. "I'll fix that mistake right now." As Touma got himself into a stance that positioned him to move in any direction as quickly as he could he couldn't help but taunt his opponent.

"And how do you plan on doing that when you couldn't do it four years ago?"

"Because now I have this." _This_ appeared to be some sort of oblong crystal that shone with its own internal light. Touma could sense the power that flowed from it to Teitoku like some sort of biological battery and threw a handful of shurikens at him.

"Too slow." A wall of Teitoku's dark matter appeared and though the shurikens dispelled it, they lasted long enough to halt their momentum, with the shurikens flight getting cut short.

"Well, that's not good." Even if Teitoku's dark matter dissolved upon contact with his Aura, it apparently lasted long enough to affect the momentum of the object behind the Aura. If that was true that meant it could work both ways which meant his attacks could now drain his Aura even through his Semblance.

Apparently even this was not enough to satisfy Teitoku. "Tch. Your power still holds sway over mine even with this AIM Core. Just what are you?"

"Probably the unluckiest son-of-a-bitch in the world."

"No. but you will be." Deciding to forego the power of the now identified AIM Core, Teitoku just went about tearing off pieces of the car and tossing them at Touma like a high-powered cannon. Despite the speed and force behind each throw, Touma managed to do a decent job at dancing and weaving between them like this was a particularly high-stakes game of middle-school dodge-ball.

Speaking of middle-school…

* * *

"Who is that guy?" Mikoto asked before grunting at the pain of getting up. His helmet and jacket had a distinct silver and blue pattern and she thought she recognized it but she just couldn't put her finger on it.

"You shouldn't get up, you're still hurt," Dr Kiyama told her.

"But that guy-"

"Appears to be holding his own. Regardless, you and I are both too injured and exhausted to be of any help." She took Mikoto's silence as agreement. Dr Kiyama sat their thoughtfully, her cool composure belying her shock and awe at the fact that this seemingly ordinary man was going at it with the number two. She had, of course, recognized the number two the moment he showed up and would have immediately run away if it hadn't been for her injuries.

But now she was kept in place for an entirely different reason. There was no way this guy should have been able to dodge all of the things Teitoku was throwing at him. Some of the smaller, faster chunks he even deflected with what appeared to be a collapsible baton. Was he an esper with some sort of decreased reaction time ability? Some sort of Academy City super soldier project? Was he on drugs?

After seeing him catch a spinning door by the top of the open window frame, pirouetting like a dancer and tossing it back at Teitoku like a professional hammer thrower, she decided that maybe _she_ was on drugs. _Did that just happen?_ Or was it the Level Upper messing with her head. Maybe it was just the caffeine.

"Did you see that?" Piped up a voice from somewhere on her left. Oh right, Mikoto was still here. She must have spaced out.

"How would I have missed that?" She asked back rhetorically.

* * *

Touma must have spent the last three minutes dodging bits of car and the odd dark matter bullet. Catching one of them in his stomach had proved his theory that it would actually affect his Aura before being negated. The more you know.

However, even through the tinted helmet he was wearing, he could see that Teitoku was running out of car parts to throw. Touma had been steadily making his way towards him and estimated that he should be close enough to get a few good hits in by the time the car was gone entirely.

"You are even faster and more agile than the last time we met," Teitoku complimented him.

"Why thank you," Touma accepted politely. "You're uglier than the last time we met," he offered a little less politely. Teitoku made a face at that and reached down to throw another piece of the car.

"How crass. Huh?" he looked down and noticed that he was all out of car to throw at Touma and looked up to take aim with his dark matter but before he could Touma was already rushing towards him and before he could even think of reacting he was smashed across the face with Touma's stun baton. "Ugh…" He groaned as he picked himself back up. Realizing that there was now no reason to stay grounded, he opened his wings to take flight but failed to miss the shurikens Touma sent flying his way. "Gah!" He cried as two of them found there mark.

"Gotcha!" Touma was running towards Teitoku with his baton poised and ready to strike but Teitoku had managed to free himself of the shurikens and, by extension, Touma's Semblance. With that, he swung the hand that wasn't holding the AIM Core and knocked the baton in his hand away and threw his own kick into Touma's stomach. He did this quickly enough for the lag between Touma's power and his to remain in effect, making the kick unbelievably strong, sending Touma flying.

Even so, he picked himself back up and charged at Teitoku. "Oh please." Teitoku scoffed. He raised his hand and fired a beam of dark matter into Touma's extremely linear path and obliterated him. Or at least that's what _should_ have happened. Instead Touma jumped above the beam, the rest of the distance between him and Teitoku then somersaulted in the air and stuck his leg out, axe kicking Teitoku right on the noggin knocking him face first into the ground. "Oof!"

Sticking his landing in a crouch with a perfect 10, Touma cocked his arm back and smashed his fist, ready to end the fight with a KO. Unfortunately, a wall of white popped into existence right above Teitoku's head and slowed Touma's fist just long enough for Teitoku to roll away.

Before standing back up, Touma rolled up his pant leg and drew his gift from Ritoku Komaba, a razor sharp serrated combat knife, as well as a handful of shurikens from his jacket. As he charged towards Teitoku he threw the shurikens, forcing Teitoku to defend with a white wall of dark matter that disappeared on contact with the shurikens, opening his guard up to an attack with the knife.

As Touma made his thrust into Teitoku's spleen, Teitoku managed to catch Touma at the wrist and once again that damnable lag kicked in, allowing Teitoku to keep his superhuman strength just long enough for him to twist Touma's arm up painfully and aim with the AIM core.

Heh heh, get it? Sorry.

From the AIM Core came another beam of dark matter, launching Touma away and draining his Aura completely. A flash of silver encompassed Touma as his Aura failed him, leaving his body as weak and vulnerable as anyone else's when he came crashing down upon the grassy field. "Oof," he let out as the wind was knocked out of him. He tried pushing himself back up and collaposed before he could even get on his feet.

"What's the matter _Silver Dragon_?" Teitoku asked in faux concern. "Giving up?" Touma took that as a personal challenge and managed to drag himself back up to his feet. "Oh, looks like you _do_ still have some fight left in you. Admirable but pointless."

Teitoku flapped his dark matter wings and a gust of wind laced with more dark matter bowled Touma right back off of his feet.

"Oh come on," Touma griped, body splayed across the field like he was about to make snow angels. "That's just not fair."

"Life isn't fair, Silver Dragon," Teitoku said, walking towards Touma. "If you want something, you have to reach out and take it."

"Is that why you have that AIM Core? To take what you want?"

"Yes, but all I want is something simple. I just want to kill Accelerator." At that, Teitoku's face darkened. "I refuse to be only the spare plan. I will be the number one."

"You know I'll stop you right?"

"How?" Teitoku taunted. "By leering up at me as you lie down on you back?"

"If I have to."

Teitoku couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Yes. I know you would. And I'm afraid that that's why I have to kill you now. You know, to keep that from happening. Nothing personal."

"Feels kinda personal." As Teitoku took aim with his AIM Core Touma raised his leg and lashed out smashing Teitoku in the stomach with his foot and distracting him long enough for Touma to get behind him and pull out the wires he had stolen from Kaori. Apparently Kaori had forgotten to ask for them back after leaving him at the hotel. He had twisted them all into one big rope to keep it from being a jumbled mess of wires but that would also help keep him from killing Teitoku in what he was about to do next.

He tackled Teitoku to the ground and snaked the wires under his chin and around his neck. He grabbed both ends of the rope in each hand and just as he predicted, the wires were kept from slicing clean through his neck by virtue of being wound together. His kick also served to help him, having knocked all of the air out of Teitoku's lungs, shortening the amount of time he had before he passed out.

Unfortunately Teitoku was tougher than he appeared and still had enough fight left in him for one final attempt to get Touma off by thrashing around. He opened his wings and, despite the extra weight and obstruction provided by Touma, still managed to take to the air and pull off manoeuvres that would make an ace pilot jealous.

 _'C'mon, he can't have much more left in him_ ,' Touma thought amidst the wind and hair whistling and whipping around him. _'Uh-oh. I think I'm gonna throw up!'_ Just as the green in Touma's cheeks started spreading and his gag reflex started proving just as persistent as the rest of him, a great and terrible thing happened.

Teitoku passed out.

Now this was a great thing because it meant that Touma's terribly jarringly jumpy flight was coming to an end.

It was terrible because Touma, being the sane and reasonable person he was, had somehow forgotten to pack a parachute.

"OO~OOH SHII~IIT!"

* * *

 _Shout out to Stormwolfex for inspiring this scene with his story_ _ **"Of Sicence and Magics"**_ _. A promising story that was never finished, and sadly, doesn't look like it will anytime soon._

 _Fave, follow, review_


End file.
